Marked by architecture and watchmaking, the history of La Chaux-de-Fonds merges with the most advanced human creative ambition. The municipality where Le Corbusier was born was also the scene of the watch industry’s development, to the point where its urban planning transformed to better integrate the manufacturing of timepieces into its economic landscape. This led Karl Marx to define La Chaux-de-Fonds as a unique example of a ‘factory-city’ created for and by Swiss watchmaking.
A History Linked to Watchmaking
What would have happened if La Chaux-de-Fonds, a small town nestled in the Swiss Jura mountains, had not ventured into the prestigious field of timepiece manufacturing? It would undoubtedly have remained the agricultural village it had been since its founding in 1656 and until the dawn of the 18th century, before the pursuit of precision took over. But then: the art of clockmaking took hold during the Age of Enlightenment, and by the mid-18th century, 68 clockmakers and 8 cabinetmakers were engaged in this proud pastime. This change, it must be noted, is owed to an exceptional personality who left his mark on both Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds: Daniel JeanRichard, a legendary self-taught watchmaker who originated the ‘établissage’ system and, consequently, the expansion of the watchmaking industry in the canton of Neuchâtel.
The significant demographic and economic growth experienced by La Chaux-de-Fonds in the 19th century is intimately linked to that of the watchmaking industry, particularly watches, which would make the city’s fortune. In 1870, almost 50% of the local population worked directly or indirectly in the watchmaking sector – nearly 4,500 individuals. A few decades earlier, in 1820, the city was chosen to host the headquarters of the Cantonal Precious Metals Control Office – metals so essential for adorning timepieces. It is for these reasons that, for 100 years, La Chaux-de-Fonds was the global hub of watchmaking.
La Chaux-de-Fonds, a Watchmaking City through and Through
What distinguishes La Chaux-de-Fonds, like its neighbor Le Locle, from most surrounding cities? Certainly not the climate (cold and harsh) or the serenity of the places. No, what differentiates these two municipalities is what is called their ‘watchmaking urbanism,’ the fact that their history is so intertwined with that of the watchmaking industry that their streets and buildings were designed with local manufacturing in mind.
Similar to what would happen in Le Locle nearly half a century later, La Chaux-de-Fonds fell victim, in 1794, to a vast fire that left the municipality devastated. The municipality then decided to rebuild by adopting a surprising consensus between hygienic concerns and production efficiency. This is therefore a very singular example of a city conceived, designed, and built with a mono-economy in mind: that of clocks and watches.
Throughout the 19th century, La Chaux-de-Fonds developed an urban planning strategy aimed at fostering economic prosperity driven by watchmaking: workshops coexisted with workers’ housing within the same buildings, and structures specialized to become factories, in a total and exceptional symbiosis between two needs – social and industrial. All that would be missing is for the city, viewed from the sky, to resemble a watch dial with its hands, for the correlation to be perfect. This led Karl Marx to state, in Das Kapital, that La Chaux-de-Fonds could be considered entirely as a single watchmaking factory, or ‘factory-city’.
La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle have also been recognized by UNESCO, which, in 2009, inscribed their watchmaking urbanism on the World Heritage List. Furthermore, since 2010, a Watchmaking Heritage Biennial has been held across these two municipalities, with the aim of familiarizing the public with this unparalleled heritage.
The Watchmaking Present of La Chaux-de-Fonds
Today, the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds continues to foster its watchmaking heritage. Numerous manufactures operate there: Breitling, Cartier, Corum, Girard-Perregaux, Jaquet Droz, JeanRichard, TAG Heuer… whose workshops can be visited to discover the secrets of watchmaking, by observing watchmakers in their daily work – by appointment only! At the same time, the Haute École Arc Ingénierie (Arc Engineering University of Applied Sciences) trains students (among others) in the art of restoration and conservation, which is so valuable in the world of watches.
As for the International Watchmaking Museum, it offers, to both novices and specialists, some 2,700 watches, 700 clocks, and 4,500 various objects (chronometers, sundials, and other non-mechanical installations) through a permanent exhibition that traces the historical evolution of the technique and art of manufacturing timepieces.