There is far more to Switzerland than cheese and chocolate. Switzerland has watches too! Home to global watch brands such as Audemars Piguet and Jaeger-LeCoultre, La Vallée de Joux, is one of Switzerland’s most renowned watch making regions. Watchmaking is woven into the valley’s past.
Farming has always been a challenge, given the region’s high altitude and long winters, so the locals were always on the look out for additional ways to make a living. Clocks, which became an important element of church design in the 12th century, were installed in local church turrets by clock makers from France and Germany. Before long, enterprising locals were tinkering with these heavenly instruments of time.
Over time, a passion for clocks merged with the local metal making industry and expertise from nearby artisans to produce some of the world’s most complex time pieces. The history of the microscopic world of watchmaking is now beautifully laid out with a watchmaker’s precision in the Espace Horloger, a 500 m2 museum in the village of Le Chenit , a stone’s throw from Lac de Joux in the heart of one of Switzerland’s most important watch making regions. The Espace Horloger, or Watchmaking Space, reopened on 9 June 2020 after an 18-month refurbishment.
Carefully restored and remodelled under the watchful eye of a team steeped in the traditions and deft precision of watchmaking, the museum offers a journey back through time to the origins of this quintessentially Swiss metie.
