Two Centuries of Horological History

As the brand itself suggests: “Somewhere on life's journey, one perceives that every myth has its origin.” For Jaeger LeCoultre, that origin can be traced back to many years before the maker began to rewrite horology's history books. It was circa 1559 that Antoine LeCoultre first arrived in Switzerland's Vallée de Joux, fleeing persecution in his native France, introducing the name LeCoultre to Switzerland's heartlands and laying the foundations for his descendant, Abraham-Joseph, to found the forge that was later to grow into Jaeger LeCoultre's manufacturing house.
But it wasn't until the early eighteenth century that brothers Antoine and Ulysse LeCoultre erected their first building to house the making of fine timepieces. Antoine, already a master watchmaker in his own right, achieved notoriety for his invention of the millionomètre. Able to measure thousandths of a millimetre with absolute accuracy, this was just one of the innovations that heralded Antoine as a founder figure of luxury horology. Others to follow included the crown winding system – widely considered to be the forefather mechanism of the modern wristwatch. Many would argue that it was this breakthrough that spurred the rise of Jaeger LeCoultre as we know it today. From that moment on, recognition and accolades were free flowing and the company continued to expand, cementing the Vallée de Joux's reputation as the home of fine watch making at that time.

The others side of the story begins in 1830, when the French Navy's official horologer, Edmund Jaeger, arrived in Paris to found his own company there, dedicated to the pursuit of speed measuring mechanisms delivering accuracy to military standards – chronometers, tachymeters and the like. It seems strange now to think that it would be another twenty-three years before Jacques-David LeCoultre, inspired by rumours of Edward Jaeger's ambition to develop a new line of ultra slim watches, initiated a friendship between the two men that would result in today's Jaeger LeCoultre brand. vedere di piu falsi orologi e Patek Philippe Aquanaut