Jamie Weiss
In 2022, I had the good fortune to visit the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture in Le Sentier, Switzerland. This was a highlight of my watch journalism career. Located in the heart of the Vallée de Joux in the Jura Mountains, the birthplace of Swiss watchmaking, the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture is one of the most accomplished manufactures in the industry. As JLC creates, develops, decorates and produces all of its watches in its own workshops, a visit to the manufacture allows you to see every part of the watchmaking process. Highly recommended.
Of course, the Manufacture itself and the watches it produces are incredible, but what is especially striking is the beauty of its surroundings. Le Sentier is a small town of just 3,000 people, and JLC’s Manufacture is located on the outskirts. The Vallée de Joux is stunningly beautiful. When you’re in Le Sentier, you feel overwhelmed by nature. Walking around the Manufacture, there is certainly a sense of incredible isolation, but at the same time, there is a sense of tranquility and harmony with nature. It’s no wonder that JLC’s watchmakers work in such a place and create such incredible watches.
The harmony with nature is literal. One particularly memorable moment during my visit was watching one of JLC’s master craftsmen perform an angrège process, a movement-finishing technique in which the right-angled edges of bridges, plates, and other components are filed and polished at a 45-degree angle (Borna explains the technique in more detail here). He explains that in the fall, they head into the woods surrounding the workshop to harvest gentian trees, which they then planer to create tapered ends that serve as tools in one of the final polishing stages.
“This is a technique that the Vallée de Joux watchmakers have used for hundreds of years and speaks to the connection to nature that JLC watches have. It was also quite magical to have him explain all this to me while a multi-million dollar multi-axis CNC machine was spinning next to his workbench. The contrast between old and new was really cool.”
One thing I remember from this trip is being gifted a small jar of honey made from Jaeger-LeCoultre’s own beehives – another little connection to nature. At the time I thought this was an unusual but fun gift. The Swiss love honey and Swiss honey is really good, so I’m not complaining. But the other day, when I grabbed the jar of honey from the cupboard to use on my toast, I had a bit of an epiphany: is there something more to Jaeger-LeCoultre honey than just a lovely keepsake? Is there actually a direct connection between these bees and watchmaking itself?
I contacted JLC to find out more about their hives and they responded and explained that they have owned the hives for almost 12 years.
“We have 10 hives (and the same number of colonies), each containing 50-60,000 bees,” explains JLC. “The hives are located opposite the main entrance of the factory. In summer, during peak bee season, the number of bees in the hives reaches 500,000-600,000. As winters in the Vallée de Joux are harsh and snowy, the colonies spend the winter on the plains and then migrate in the spring to the area opposite the factory, where they remain until autumn.”
The JLC explains that its reason for installing the hives was first and foremost to raise awareness about the decline of bee populations around the world, and that it had set them up with the help of local beekeeper Franck Crozet, who owns the largest collection of beehives in Switzerland.
“Honey production contributes to a virtuous circle of protecting bees and also helps to raise awareness among those who receive our jars of honey,” they explain. “Our hives are well received by the people of the Vallée de Joux and visitors. Our employees are also proud of the project, which reminds us that we are not only making watches, but also contributing to the protection of the planet.”
But whether intentional or not, I think there are other reasons why these hives are important to JLC.
The gentian used by watchmakers is in particular Gentiana lutea, or great yellow gentian, which grows in the mountainous regions of Central and Southern Europe. A perennial plant whose roots have long been prized for their use in liqueurs and herbal medicines, it produces bright yellow flowers in summer on stems that can grow to more than a metre high. It is these stems that interest watchmakers. Read on to find out more about how watchmakers harvest and prepare gentian plants in Blancpain’s magazine, Lettres du Brassus.
Anyway, follow my train of thought. Yellow gentian is a flower. Of course, bees pollinate the flower. I suspect that JLC’s bee hives also help ensure that there is a constant and plentiful supply of gentian around the manufacturing site so that the watchmakers can continue to use gentian trees to polish the watch components. In that sense, there is a direct connection between these bee hives and JLC’s craftsmanship.
JLC couldn’t confirm or deny if this is the case. To be honest, it’s probably pretty hard to quantify if their beehives are part of their production process, so to speak. But I don’t think it matters much. What I know for sure is that the connection between JLC watchmakers and nature is undeniable… and their honey is delicious.
