Jaeger LeCoultre

History of Jaeger LeCoultre Watches

Jaeger LeCoultre is known for making some of the worlds finest timepieces.  The brand has hundreds of inventions and over a thousand calibers to its credit. A few of the company’s crowning achievements include the worlds smallest caliber movement and one of the worlds most complicated wristwatches.

Antoine LeCoultre a small watchmaking workshop La Sentier in 1833. LeCoultre is well known for creating the worlds most precise measuring instrument at the time, the Millionometre.  In 1847, he created a keyless system to rewind and set watches. LeCoultre received a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in London in 1881 for his work on timepiece precision and mechanization.  During a time when most watchmaking skills were divided up amongst hundreds of smaller workshops, LeCoultre and his Elie decided to establish the Vallee de Joux’s first full-fledged watch production facility. By combining their employees’ expertise all under one roof, LeCoultre & Cie was formed. By 1870 the company had produced the first partially mechanised production process for mechanical movements, thanks in large part to their newly established setup.  From 1902 to around 1930 LeCoultre & Cie actually produced the majority of the movement blanks for Patek Philippe.

In 1903, French watchmaker Edmond Jaeger challenged Swiss watchmakers to develop and produce the ultra-thin wristwatch movements that he had created.  Antoine LeCoultre’s grandson, Jacques David Lecoultre was now in charge of production at LeCoultre & Cie and he accepted such a challenge. By 1907 LeCoultre had created the thinnest pocket watch model in the world. Jaeger signed a contract that same year with Cartier, agreeing to exclusively produce all of their movements for 15 years.  The movements were actually produced by LeCoultre during that time period and the relationship ultimately led to the creation of Jaeger LeCoultre in 1937. Jaeger had also purchased the patent for the atmospherically driven clock Atmos, which he licsenced to LeCoultre in 1936 and 1937.

Following the creation of Jaeger LeCoultre in 1937 the company was forced to locally case their watches in North America due to the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act. Watches were sold under the name LeCoultre and actually cased by the company Vacheron-LeCoultre through 1985. Watches under the Jaeger LeCoultre name were sold in Europe during this time, just not in North America.  Once the LeCoultre trademark expired in 1985 it was replaced by the Jaeger LeCoultre brand name.

Not only did Jaeger make fine timepieces but they also produced automobile instruments. In 1921 they formed a company that built and produced speedometers for high-end car manufacturers.  In 2001, the company partnered up with Aston Martin and launched the Aston Martin Jaeger LeCoultre men’s wristwatch.  The design of the luxury timepiece was inspired by the companies 70-year partnership with one another. The company has been a fully owned subsidiary of the Swiss luxury group, Richemont since 2000.