Vallée de Joux - In the footsteps of old watchmaking farms

The Nord Vaudois Region, October 19, 2017, text Valérie Beauverd

More than a century ago, peasant watchmakers returned to their workshops after spending the summer in the fields. 26 watchmaking farms recount this little-known heritage.

Watchmaker, micromechanic, microtechnology engineer, jeweller, engraver, enameller: so many professions that symbolize today’s watchmaking universe. And yet, there was a time when the peasants of the Vallée de Joux retired to their farms at the onset of winter to make timepieces in their workshop, bathed in sunlight. It was only in the spring that they went to the watch counter in Geneva to sell the product of meticulous labor.

According to Olivier Piguet, Maurice Mollet’s property, located at a place called Derrière la Côte, is “one of the most beautiful watchmaking farms in the Valley”. The facade in tavillon (kind of wooden tiles) served as thermal protection to fight against the harshness of winter. The peasant watchmakers of the time had fitted a line of windows in the attic, in order to benefit from all the sunlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGTn5eIzwI

https://www.laregion.ch/traces-anciennes-fermes-horlogeres/