How Edmond Jaeger and Jacques-David LeCoultre Joined Forces

Much has been written of the history of Jaeger-LeCoultre, but little has been said of the complex history that gave us this unusual name. How did an Alsatian immigrant to Paris come to be so closely connected to one of the most famous watchmaking families of the Vallée de Joux? This is the story of the partnership between Edmond Jaeger and Jacques-David LeCoultre, and those that helped them to become Jaeger-LeCoultre, including a group of French aviation pioneers and a Swiss daredevil with a famous family name.

Introducing Edmond Jaeger

Despite his stature and legacy in watchmaking, very little is known about Edmond Jaeger. There are many stories, from his chance meeting with Jacques-David LeCoultre to his exclusive deal to supply Cartier, but it is difficult to find much documentation of these tales. Indeed, it seems that most are more folklore than history, and this being Grail Watch we shall attempt to confirm or unravel them.

It is widely reported that Jaeger was born in 1858 and died in 1922, and this much is confirmed in his obituary in Journal Suisse d’Horlogerie et de Bijouterie (reproduced below). Jaeger was Alsatian, and his birth date suggests that he moved away from Alsace due to the Franco-Prussian war. It is more likely that his family moved to Paris before their home was annexed by Otto von Bismarck in 1871 since most emigrants during the German period ended up in Algeria rather than France.

We know that Edmond Jaeger was a brilliant mechanic and inventor and was involved in watchmaking in Paris in the 1880s. The FHH chronology lists 1880 as the year his own business was established, but this date is unsupported or even contradicted by other sources. The FHH also claims that, in 1890, Jaeger delivered the first of a series of onboard chronometers for the French navy, and this seems likely, though perhaps not in his own name until later.

It is well-documented that Pierre Gabriel and Edmond Jaeger, both of Paris, patented a power reserve indicator by 1886. This is reported in both the Journal Suisse d’Horlogerie and Revue Chronométrique that year, so it must have been an outstanding invention to get that much coverage. Gabriel was a noted chronometer maker in his own right so it is unclear whether Jaeger was his employee or his collaborator. A similar power reserve indicator was one highlight of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s lineup in the 1950s, though it is likely unrelated technically.

A Mr. Courvoisier won a 2nd prize at the annual Paris concours that same year and is noted as a worker of Mr. Jaeger of Paris. But Jaeger is reported to be working for Ed. Lefèvre when he won a silver medal at the 1889 Paris Exposition. It is possible that Jaeger was merely assisting another watchmaker, or that he went into business with Lefèvre by this time. Nadelhoffer’s book “Cartier” claims that Jaeger was employed by the noted Parisian firm of Breguet, then in the hands of the English Brown family, before setting up his own firm in 1905. Given their stature, most Parisian watchmakers worked for Breguet early in their career so there is little reason to doubt this, though that date of 1905 is interesting given his later collaboration with LeCoultre.

Jaeger’s fortunes certainly improved after the turn of the century, thanks in part to his work with Jacques-David LeCoultre. As we shall discuss, he established his own business in Geneva, took a place on the board of LeCoultre & Cie., and became the Vice President of the Chambre Syndicale de Horlogerie in Paris. But a devastating illness struck in 1921 and he died in 1922. Edmond Jaeger never knew how famous his name would become!

Note: Although all this is widely reported, I could find very little mention of Jaeger or his work before the turn of the century in a primary source. I would welcome contributions from readers!

LeCoultre in Le Sentier: The “Grande Maison”

Jacques-David LeCoultre was the heir to one of the most successful watchmaking businesses in the Vallée de Joux. The LeCoultre family had many such businesses in this remote area near the French border, but the movement specialist LeCoultre & Cie. was the biggest and remains the best-known. Organized in the mid-19th century by Antoine LeCoultre and his sons, it was the first company in the valley to bring diverse movement specialists under one roof. Though never a mass-producer, LeCoultre & Cie. mechanized and grew rapidly and was famous for producing a large variety of complicated and compact movements.

The date of the founding of LeCoultre’s company is subject to different interpretations. The company today widely advertises a founding date of 1833, and this is indeed the year that Antoine LeCoultre began making watches. This year was claimed by the firm as far back as the 1890s, and it does correspond nicely to LeCoultre’s personal work as a watchmaker. But the joint stock company that is the predecessor to the current firm, LeCoultre, Borgeaud & Cie., was created only in 1860. It would become known as LeCoultre & Cie. in 1877, and would organize Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1937.

One reason for this confusion is that the LeCoultre family slowly came to embrace watch production. Born in 1903, LeCoultre himself began working in 1823 as a producer of combs for music boxes, and keyboards for musical instruments, important industries throughout the 19th century. He worked in Geneva in 1828 before returning to Le Sentier in 1830 to go into business with his father. In 1832, LeCoultre built a machine that could produce much more precise metal cuts than ever before, and he established a workshop to produce watch gears the following year. This is the establishment date claimed today.

LeCoultre proved his work with another great invention in 1844, the “millionmeter” which could measure as precisely as one micron. At a time that most watch gears were finished by “eyeball” and by feel, LeCoultre’s were precise as scientific instruments. They gained fame far and wide, and “Valley gears” were prized above all others.

Like many watchmakers in this remote region, the LeCoultre family built strong relationships with watch assemblers in Geneva and Neuchâtel. Their products were so widely used that the factory in Le Sentier grew to house hundreds of workers, with “LeCoultre movements” becoming almost a generic term for the high-quality and precise products of the Vallée de Joux. The “grande maison,” is often claimed to have employed 500 people at various points in the 19th century, but a first-hand account of the 25th wedding anniversary of Benjamin LeCoultre in 1904 claims just 220 workers and a founding date of 1826 (see References). Still, this was far larger than any other company in the area.

Many of these used the “swing winder”, which allowed a watch to be wound without a key, an 1847 LeCoultre invention. He would later invent other keyless works, and this represented a transformation in usability for pocket watches.

LeCoultre’s 1853 partnership with Jean Gallay was not successful, so he established a new company with Auguste Borgeaud in 1860. This collaboration was renewed with the sons of the founders in 1869, but the Borgeauds were removed from 1877. After this, the company is simply called LeCoultre & Cie.

Many younger members of the watchmaking families from the Vallée de Joux migrated to the metropolitan centers to act as agents and distributors for these products. Among these were Eugene LeCoultre and Antoine’s own firm of LeCoultre, Borgeaud & Cie., both from Le Sentier, who set up shop in Geneva between 1860 and 1866.

Among the companies supported by LeCoultre & Cie. at the turn of the century was the already-famous Geneva house of Patek Philippe. Many of the watches finished and sold from their Geneva office were built of components from Le Sentier! The close relationship of these companies is evident after 1903, as LeCoultre & Cie. set up a movement finishing shop inside Patek Philippe’s offices at rue du Rhône 41! It appears they accomplished this by purchasing the business of C. Husson (formerly Husson & Retor) and leveraging this to replace the rival firm of C.-M. Colonnaz as prime supplier for the company.

Jaeger, LeCoultre, and Cartier

There are many fanciful stories about the meeting of Jacques-David LeCoultre and Edmond Jaeger in Paris. A video from Jaeger-LeCoultre tells us that “in 1903 … Jaeger challenged Swiss manufacturers to develop the ultra-thin movements he had just invented” and that Jacques-David LeCoultre rode a bicycle “for 20 kilometers from the manufacture to the nearest telephone.” Other stories have LeCoultre spotting a Jaeger chronometer in the window of a shop by chance while visiting Paris.

Given the renown of the LeCoultre & Cie. manufacture by this time, it is much more likely that Jaeger specifically invited the company to build his ultra-thin movement. The fact that the firm selected Jacques-David as their representative rather than his uncle Benjamin LeCoultre, then the managing director, demonstrates their faith in the young man. Born in 1875, Jacques-David was nearly thirty but had only started to work at his family firm five years earlier in 1897, and then as a simple worker. But the young LeCoultre would soon transform the family company.

Around 1905, Edmond Jaeger was setting up an arrangement to supply Cartier with movements and even complete watches. Nadelhoffer tells us that this was a one-way arrangement, with Cartier committed to purchasing all of Jaeger’s output with annual orders of at least 250,000 francs. And his book, “Cartier,” includes many fabulous illustrations of these watches. Given this large order, it is no wonder that Jaeger set up his own relationship with the best manufacturer of precision watch movements, LeCoultre & Cie.

This arrangement proved so successful that Jacques-David LeCoultre succeeded his uncle Benjamin as general director of LeCoultre & Cie. on September 1, 1906. His uncle (who is often overlooked in the chronology of the company) was much-loved by his workers and died in 1911.

Jaeger and LeCoultre continued to produce movements for Cartier through this time, as well as other notable firms including Patek Philippe and Vacheron and Constantin. This period also saw the widespread adoption of wristwatches in military and aviation, including the groundbreaking Santos Dumont watch, developed by Louis Cartier for the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont but produced for sale by Jaeger. It is likely that none of this could have been achieved without the three-way close collaboration between Cartier, Jaeger, and LeCoultre.

Gustave Delage, Edmond Audemars, and WWI Aviation

With the world looking to war, Jaeger and LeCoultre realized that high-end complicated and thin watches would no longer be in demand. But their collaboration with aviation pioneers, and Jaeger’s inventive spirit, gave the two firms a new market. Buoyed by the fame of the Santos Dumont watch, Jaeger and LeCoultre formed a partnership with French aviation engineer Gustave Delage and Swiss aviator and adventurer Edmond Audemars to create clocks, tachometers, barometers, and other gauges for the military aviation market.

Jaeger had invented a number of displays and gauges for automobiles and airplanes, but the company needed funding to go into production. Delage and Audemars brought together a group of French aviators, including Léon Morane, Laurent Seguin, Gabriel Voisin, to fund the firms. These notables provided more than 2.5 million francs to support Edmond Jaeger SA and LeCoultre & Cie., with Delage himself becoming finance director.

With this much funding in hand, Jaeger and LeCoultre were set up not just to weather the storm of war but to contribute to the success of France’s allies. LeCoultre’s 8-day table and automobile dashboard clocks were reconfigured for flight use, becoming a lasting prototype for the cockpit chronometer. Indeed, this template was continued throughout the century, with copies still being produced in Russia until the fall of the Soviet Union!

The two firms mainly focused on aeronautical gauges during the war, signing an agreement in January 1916 to produce tachometers and pressure gauges and another in March 1917. Jaeger-branded tachometers, altimeters, and aviation clocks were common on Allied airplanes, and even the notorious Red Baron is said to have sourced a Jaeger gauge for his plane!

The fame of Jaeger’s gauges grew after the war. During the hydroplane racing fad of the 1920s, repurposed aviation engines and gauges captured the imagination, and demand grew for Jaeger tachometers in motor racing. Jaeger’s chronometric tachometers were also manufactured in the UK, with the famous Smith’s company taking over British Jaeger in 1927 and supplying MG, Bentley, Jaguar, and more.

High-end and diversified companies were largely spared the brutal price wars that caused a collapse of Swiss watchmaking after the war. As LeCoultre continued to manufacture in support of other companies, Jaeger sought to grow as a commercial watch brand. Edmond Jaeger established a presence in Switzerland and registered his own company in Geneva in 1917. He had previously relied on a lawyer in Basel for patents, but these were transferred to his Geneva firm over the next few years. Jaeger also registered two logos, one suggesting a gauge and the other showing the letters “MIM.”

But Jaeger and LeCoultre faced a new challenge the following year. Edmond Jaeger was stricken ill, and was forced to withdraw from his commercial activities. Jacques Lebet of Buttes, Switzerland, took over the technical operation of Jaeger’s firm, while Edmond Audemars, Gustave Delage, and Jacques-David LeCoultre managed the business.

Edmond Jaeger died in 1922, never seeing the 100 years of success that would come to his partnership with LeCoultre.

The Birth of Jaeger-LeCoultre

For the first 100 years of the firm’s existence, LeCoultre & Cie. was not a commercial maker of watches. Although the large company was very well-known in the industry and produced ebauches, movements, and even complete watches for many other brands, they rarely sold watches in their own name and did not have a commercial arm. The Le Sentier company was officially listed as a manufacture of “mouvements en blanc” until 1922, and despite becoming a “Fabrique d’Horlogerie” the next year was not registered as a commercial watch brand until 1930.

After the Great War, Jacques-David LeCoultre sought to change this. He became increasingly involved in Edmond Jaeger’s Swiss watchmaking firm, Ed. Jaeger SA of Geneva, and this became his major brand for a decade. At this same time, LeCoultre became active in the Chambre Suisse de l’Horlogerie, hosting the central committee in Le Sentier in 1923. He also became a director of the upstart Hölstein-based firm, Oris, set up his own commercial brand known as Jacques LeCoultre, and invested in Patek Philippe and Vacheron and Constantin. Gustave Delage and Jacques Lebet remained in control of the Paris operations of of Ed. Jaeger, with LeCoultre and Edmond Audemars more involved in Geneva. The Paris branch increasingly focusing on gauges rather than watches, with Jaeger Geneva serving as LeCoultre’s brand outlet.

In 1931, Jacques-David LeCoultre entered into a new business with globetrotting salesman César de Trey. Spécialtiés Horlogères SA was incorporated in Lausanne to exploit de Trey’s “Reverso” watch concept. After the de Trey family left the firm in 1934, they were replaced by Gustave Delage and Paul Lebet. Soon Spécialtiés Horlogères was representing the Jaeger brand as well as that of Jacques LeCoultre, with most products produced by Fabrique d’Horlogerie LeCoultre & Cie. SA of Le Sentier.

On November 30, 1937, Spécialtiés Horlogères SA was officially renamed La Société de vents des Produits Jaeger-LeCoultre SA, reflecting and representing the Jaeger and LeCoultre brands. The company was lead by Jacques-David LeCoultre, with his trusted friends Gustave Delage and Paul Lebet filling out the board. The following year, LeCoultre invested in the struggling Vacheron and Constantin, incorporating their famous brand as well.

The Grail Watch Perspective: Jacques-David LeCoultre’s First Act

The collaboration between Jaeger and LeCoultre would become today’s Jaeger-LeCoultre brand, and much of this success was due to the efforts of Jacques-David LeCoultre. He transformed his family’s successful manufacture of “mouvements en blanc” to a major supplier of the finest Geneva and Paris brands, from Patek Philippe to Cartier, thanks to his work with Edmond Jaeger. The company’s successful diversification into gauges for aviation during World War I ensured that it would survive the post-war bust as well as the death of the brilliant Jaeger himself.

But Jacques-David LeCoultre had another idea, combining the Jaeger name with his own and entering the competitive watch sales and distribution market. This story will be told in the next part of my Jaeger-LeCoultre series!

References

I am indebted to my friend Charlie Dunn who researched his “books on time” to help me clarify this story!

Perhaps the most detailed account of Jaeger’s life is found in the book, “Cartier” by Hans Nadelhoffer, and I especially appreciate his detailed notes. Because of his rigorous research I am relying on his account more than any other, though he did get Jaeger’s birth year wrong. Many other sources are quite “loose” with the story and are obviously re-telling the same accounts found elsewhere. Since this is Grail Watch, we’re not going to do that!

Jaeger and LeCoultre Media Coverage

Chronology of Ed. Jaeger Business Filings

Who Are Jacques and Paul Lebet?

Although central to the story, the story of Jacques Lebet and Paul Lebet are not told. Jacques Lebet succeeded Edmond Jaeger on his death in 1922, and Paul Lebet would take his place on the administrative board of Jaeger and LeCoultre in the 1930s. Who were they?

Jacques Lebet is listed as “de Genève” when he replaced Edmond Jaeger on the board of LeCoultre & Cie. in 1923. But he is shown as “de Buttes” in the 1924 announcement of his addition to the board of Ed. Jaeger SA. He remained listed through 1929 but is not seen after this. Paul Lebet is listed on the board of the new Jaeger-LeCoultre SA in 1938 as being “a Lausanne” and remains there until his death in 1945. He was replaced by Edmond Audemars and Jules Savary.

Paul Lebet’s obituary reads as follows:

Obituaries
PAUL LEBET
We learned of the death, after a few weeks of illness, of Mr. Paul Lebet, administrator of the “Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron and Constantin” houses in Geneva.
The deceased, well known in the watchmaking world, devoted a large part of his laborious existence to the service of these two masons and the best of his strength and his remarkable abilities.
For more than thirty-five years, first abroad, then in Switzerland, he devoted himself without counting to the management of these two firms to which he ensured a brilliant development.
May they find here, as well as her grieving family, an expression of respectful sympathy and our sincere condolences.

La Fédération Horlogère July 26, 1945

Given this chronology, it is very likely that Jacques Lebet was Paul Lebet’s father. Since most company administrators served between the ages of 40 and 60 and most watchmakers started their career at around 20, we can guess that Jacques Lebet would be born around 1870 and would start his career around 1890. If Paul Lebet was his son, we would guess he would follow 20 to 30 years later.

Buttes is a village in the Val-de-Travers in western Canton Neuchâtel. Just over the border in Canton Vaud is Sainte-Croix, and we find a Jacques Lebet listed as a Règlage (movement adjuster) on Avenue des Lilas 3 from 1891 through 1899, when he is listed instead as a Pendules et Rhabill. (clock maker and repairer). From 1900 through 1902, his name is shown as Jacques Lebet-Jaccard, suggesting he married a woman named Jaccard, still at the same address. And Jacques is back to Règlage in 1903. We also find him shooting at the Tir Cantonal in l’Impartial in 1892 (from Sainte-Croix) and 1907 (from Geneva, in the adult category).

Jacques Lebet is no longer listed in the 1908 edition of Indicateur Davoine, but Paul Lebet appears that year as a Repasseur. We see Paul Lebet listed there through 1922. All of this lines up nicely with our guesses about Jacques and Paul above. Although I could not locate an obituary for Jacques Lebet or any mention of either outside horological sources, this perhaps fills in some gaps.

It is likely that Paul Lebet was brought to Paris by his father Jacques to work for Jaeger there. Over time, Paul rose to take Jacques’ place as an administrator of that company and in Jaeger-LeCoultre after the 1938 merger. Returning to Switzerland, he lived in the vibrant Chailly neighborhood of Lausanne in 1940 and would serve the company through his death in 1945.