Jaeger-LeCoultre
Jaeger- LeCoultre is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, which is part of the Richemont Group. The company is based in Le Sentier, Switzerland.
History
The company LeCoultre was founded in 1833 by brothers Charles Antoine LeCoultre and Ulysse in the Vallée de Joux, canton of Vaud. Eleven years later, Antoine LeCoultre invented a device for measuring micrometer intervals, the Millionometer. In the first World Exhibition in London in 1851 he was awarded a gold medal for his developments in the fields of precision and mechanization. By 1858, to avoid bankruptcy, a partnership was sought and the company in LeCoultre & Cie Borgeaud. Fabrique d' horlogerie en blanc renamed. 1859, the Company had approximately 100 employees. Beginning in 1866, Antoine's son, Elie LeCoultre modernized the company through the introduction of quality standards. He created the first watch manufacturer by the purchase of machinery and the union of all relevant trades under one roof. This could be produced from 1860-1890 over 350 different movements. In 1877 Antoine LeCoultre and gave Auguste Borgeaud operation on LeCoultre offspring. Under the direction of the three sons of the company in LeCoultre & Cie has been renamed. In 1888 the company employed 480 employees, half of them in the company's own premises in Le Sentier.
Jacques- David LeCoultre in 1900 was head of watchmaking and 1906 General. As of 1907, delivered LeCoultre & Cie Rohwerke (French Ébauches ) at the Paris watchmaker Edmond Jaeger, who designed the world's thinnest pocket watch ( caliber 145 with 1.38 mm height). The Atmos clock was designed in 1928 by Jean -Léon Reutter, who in 1930 sold the patents to Jaeger. The collaboration between LeCoultre & Cie with Jaeger led Jacques- David LeCoultre 1937 in a merger of both companies. After his death in 1948, Jaeger- LeCoultre has been taken under the CEO Roger LeCoultre and the Executive Director Georges Ketterer in the holding SAPIC, which was already owned by Vacheron Constantin. In 1965, Georges Ketterer SAPIC and Jaeger-LeCoultre left as CEO in order henceforth to lead Vacheron Constantin, which was spun off, at the same time as a subsidiary of the SAPIC. The remaining shares Roger LeCoultre at SAPIC were transferred to a holding company called sapphire. SAPPHIRE 1969 was Favre- Leuba sold to at the time the oldest continually producing watches manufacturers in the world. The management of the SAPHIR was subsequently taken over by Henry and Barbara Favre.
For the U.S. market the brand name LeCoultre has been retained from the 1930s until the late 1970s due to customs restrictions imposed by the Smoot- Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. For the same reason, the watch case of these watches were made in the USA. Sales of the watches for the U.S. market was at that time held the American company Vacheron Constantin LeCoultre, a subsidiary of Longines - Wittnauer. The brand name Jaeger, however, was used for produced in France watches.
Battered by the quartz crisis, a majority share of the company in 1978 was sold to VDO Automotive. 1986 VDO sold 40 % stake in Audemars Piguet on, but later acquired the remaining shares in Jaeger- LeCoultre, in the possession of the Ketterer family ( 25%) and a bank ( 20%) were located. In 2000 sold Mannesmann VDO had taken over in 1991, their participation in Jaeger- LeCoultre as part of the company Les Manufactures Horlogères, and the 60 % stake in Jaeger-LeCoultre as well as 100% of the shares of Vacheron Constantin, IWC, A. Lange & Söhne held at the Swiss jewelry and luxury watch group Richemont. In the same year Richemont bought the remaining 40 % of Audemars Piguet. With over 900 employees and employees achieved Jaeger -LeCoultre 2006 sales of over 240 million Swiss francs. In 2009, the Master Tourbillon watches and Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 won the first two awards of the international chronometry competition the town of Le Locle and Watch Museum Le Locle.
Known watches are ladies watches with the smallest caliber in the world ( K101 ), since 1928 the skeletonized pocket watch Grande Complication email Bleu (caliber 17JSSCCRVQ, with minute, double -seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar ), since 1929 since 1931 the model Reverso with reversible case, since 1951 the alarm wristwatch Memovox (from 1956 also with automatic winding ) and the automatic Futurematic, since 1959 automatic alarm wristwatch for divers ( Deep Sea automatic alarm), since 1989, the Grand Reveil ( with alarm, perpetual calendar and automatic movement ), since 2004 the watches Master Grand Reveil ( as previous, with additional vibration alarm) and Gyrotourbillon I ( with a gimbal-mounted tourbillon ), since 2009, consisting of 1300 parts Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie ( with 26 complications, one of the most complicated wristwatches in the world) and since 2010 the Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication ( with an orbital tourbillon and minute repeater ).
As before, JLC also produces table clocks, for example, the Atmos produced since 1931, whose mechanical movement is wound on temperature changes. Since 2008, Jaeger- LeCoultre commemorates the late Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, his hit Atmos Marqueterie was dedicated in an edition of ten pieces, the " Expectation " inspired by Klimt's work.
Milestones
LeCoultre Memovox alarm watch, 1954
Atmos desk clock 1950s