The History of Jaeger Lecoultre Watches

The History of Jaeger Lecoultre Watches
A brilliant inventor and self-taught watchmaker,
Antoine-LeCoultre founded his first workshop in 1833,
following the invention of a machine to produce watchmaking
pinions. Ever since, the Manufacture Jaeger-Lecoultre has
developed constantly around the founder's original
workshops.

Surprisingly enough, it was neither a physicist nor an
engineer who first measured the micron; it was Antoine
LeCoultre, in 1844. He had created watch components that
were so perfect no tool could actually detect their degree
of inaccuracy. He followed that up by inventing the world's
most accurate instrument: the Millionometer, which served
as a benchmark for over half a century.

In 1847, LeCoultre created a revolutionary system that was
to do away with the need for keys to rewind and set
watches. His simple and brilliant solution was a pushbutton
that activated a lever to switch from one function to
another. It was the first keyless winding mechanism, and
the first reliable system that eliminated the need for keys
to wind or set a watch.

In 1866, when Swiss watchmaking was still structured around
small home-run workshops, Antoine LeCoultre and his son
Elie decided to bring together under one rood the many
skills involved in making watches, and installed a
steam-driven machine to operate their new tools. LeCoultre
& Cie thus became the first Manufacture in the
Vallée de Joux.

It was in 1903 when the Parisian Edmond Jaeger set Swiss
watchmakers the challenge of producing ultra-thin calibres.
It would lead to the Calibre 145, the world's thinnest
mechanical movement, measuring no more than 1.38 mm, and
the friendship of Antoine LeCoultre's grandson,
Jacques-Devid LeCoultre. These two men would give a rise to
a range of horological wonders, and eventually the birth of
the Jaeger-LeCoultre brand in 1937.

In the year 1908, the Manufacture created its first
rectangular-shaped calibre in response to the challenge
created to miniaturize watches to wear on the wrist. By the
"Roaring 20s" (1920s), very small ladies' wristwatches were
all the rage, but extreme miniaturization always led to a
loss of reliability and precision. The Duoplan brilliantly
solved this problem by arranging its parts on split levels.
It would lead to the world's smallest movement, Calibre
101. Outdoing the Calibre 145, Jaeger-Lecoultre
miniaturized the Duoplan caliber to the extreme, weighing
in at barely one gram and comprising of 74 parts. Its
record is still unmatched to this date.

Since its founding, the Manufacture has created and
produced over 1,000 different calibres in many varieties.
Over 200 patented inventions have contributed to the
progress of Swiss watchmaking in the field of movements, as
well as that of cases, bracelets, dials, and watch
functions.

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