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Discovering
Swiss Luxury Watches in the Jura Mountains
For lovers
of fine luxury watches, the Jura Mountains in the Canton of Jura of Switzerland
is a veritable Mecca. Located at the north-eastern border of Switzerland, the
Jura Arc, as it is called, is the real heart of Swiss watch making, where some
of the legendary names in the history of watch making were born and made their
mark, and headquarters to some of the most prestigious watch making companies on
the planet today. In these starkly beautiful mountains are numerous families who
have been involved in the watch-making industry for generations, and innumerable
artisan workshops and other small family businesses dedicated to some aspect or
the other of watch making. For those interested in catching a real watchmaker at
work, or learning more about the history of this fascinating craft, this is the
perfect place to be.
A visit through Switzerland to the Jura Mountains is a trip through some of the
most endearing Swiss clichés in the travel brochure – brilliant green fields
studded by cows grazing contentedly, towering mountains rearing up into a clear
blue sky and pretty little towns tucked into hilly valleys. Here in this quiet
northeastern corner of Switzerland, close to the French border, most people are
speak French - complete with accompanying hand gestures - rather than the
heavier German which dominates the speech of residents around Lake Geneva, a
fact which adds a certain exotic flair to this otherwise typically Swiss
landscape.
For those who love to do tours, there’s a Watch making Tour available – which is
to say, you can take a 200-km round trip, 30-stop driving tour from Geneva
through the many towns in the Jura Mountains to Basel and back, stopping at
various showrooms and museums along the way. For true watch lovers however, one
of the most important stops along the route is the small town (or by Swiss
standards, city) of La Chaux-de-Fonds, where many of the luxury watch marques
site at least part of their operations - Girard-Perregaux, JeanRichard, TAG
Heuer, Corum, Omega, Breitling, Juvenia, Movado, Ulysse Nardin, Invicta…the list
goes on.
Many of these headquarters are obviously off-limits to casual visitors, but the
town does boast one of the country’s biggest watch-related must-see attractions:
the Museum of International Horology located at 29 Rue des Musées (Tues–Sun:
June–Sept 10am–5pm; Oct–May 10am–noon & 2–5pm; Fr.8; SMP). This museum has one
of the most extensive collections of extraordinary time pieces you’d probably
find anywhere, from exquisite pocket watches from the 18th century to some of
the most recent models available.
 Another
interesting stop in Le Chau-de-Fonds is the quietly elegant Villa Marguerite,
home to the Girard-Perregaux Museum, which has an amazing collection of
delicate, hand painted pocket watches and wristwatches from the previous two
centuries – definitely a gentleman’s collection here! Visits to this museum, as
well as the JeanRichard museum have to be made by appointment, but for those who
claim to be true ‘horolophiles’, as it were, a stop at these collections add
depth to understanding.
Nearby is the Villa JeanRichard, home to the company named after a legendary
Jura watchmaker. This neo-gothic building fronts a quiet street in this quiet
town and is frankly so quietly impressive that its no surprise the locals refer
to it as ‘the Castle’. Rather than showcasing old models (the JeanRichard marque
is very young by Swiss standards, with barely 20 years under its belt in a
country where many watch brands are hundreds of years old), the museum preserves
some of the apparatus once used by watchmakers of yesteryear. It would probably
bore any non-watch lover in minutes (cogs and lathes are admittedly not very
exciting) but for those who find the whole process of watch making fascinating,
the museum makes an interesting stop to get a more intimate feel for the craft.
Speaking of the legendary watchmaker, the JeanRichard headquarters and museum
aren’t the places where you can sense Daniel JeanRichard’s legacy to Swiss
watchmaking; there’s a road named after him just few streets away and in the
nearby town of Le Locle, you can also contemplate a rather stern-looking iron
statue of the man himself.
These are only a few of the fascinating things to see in the Jura Mountains (if
you’re a watch lover). For those not quite so interested in horology, a trip
around the mountains at least offers the compensation of magnificent scenery,
quaint little towns, some excellent horse-riding, cheese-eating and
wine-drinking opportunities, some fantastic ski and biking trails…in fact,
practically anything you can imagine wanting to do or see in Switzerland!
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