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The vallée de Joux : cradle of the watchmaker’s art
n the heart of the Swiss Jura, around 50 kilometres
north of Geneva, nestles a landscape which
has retained its natural charm to this day : the
vallée de Joux. Around the mid-18th century, the harsh
climate of this mountainous region and soil depletion
drove the farming community settled there to seek other
sources of income. With their high degree of manual
dexterity, inexhaustible creativity and enormous
determination, the inhabitants of the valley, known as
Combiers, were naturally drawn to watchmaking.
Due to their high quality, the movements they produced
acquired great popularity with the Geneva firms which
used them to create complete watches.
From 1740 onwards, watchmaking developed into the
principal industry of the vallée de Joux. Thus, this
region was transformed, as an 1881 chronicle put it,
“ into a land of milk and honey, in which poverty has
rapidly disappeared ”.
I
1 Intr
oduction
Eng
lish
The Manufacture
Audemars Piguet