FrançaisWho was Daniel Jeanrichard? The documents are so few that it is difficult to distinguish between true and false, to separate the reality of this mythification of which the man was quickly the object after his death. What is certain is that this self-taught genius, who has always lived in the mountains of the Swiss Jura, has remained a tutelary figure of the Neuchâtel watchmaking industry, which he helped to bring out. This famous watchmaker had only tools, his talent and an indisputable gift for innovation.
A mysterious autodidact named Daniel Jeanrichard
In the absence of sufficient documentation (see the official website devoted to the master), the exact role of Daniel Jeanrichard in the advent of the Neuchâtel watch industry and the precise reasons that led him to enter the Hall of Fame manufacturers. time, remain poorly known.
We know that the man was born in 1665 in a hamlet of the Swiss Jura named Les Bressels, located somewhere between La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, and that he shows very early all the finery of a spirit inventive and full of curiosity. It is said that the young man, devoid of experience in watchmaking, an art that does not exist in the Jura mountains, is one day entrusted, by a horse dealer back from London, an English watch whose mechanism stopped along the way.
Why does the traveler have the idea of submitting to the boy this object of high precision? Passing through Jeanrichard’s, whose father he knows well, he notices the presence of many small works that the family owes to Daniel’s manufacturing talents. He gets down to the task and manages to repair the timepiece, not without having carefully examined the mechanism.
With this knowledge, Daniel Jeanrichard is able, in 1681, or at 16 years old, to design his own watch, a reproduction almost identical to the model he has restored for his father’s friend. This is the very first watch ever made in the Neuchâtel region, and the result of a challenge all the more incredible that nobody, before the arrival of the merchant, had ever seen the equivalent of this accessory . To achieve this, Daniel is forced to imagine and design all the tools and machines needed to manufacture, in order to reproduce the delicate parts of the mechanism. He needs, in all, a year and a half of work.
The roots of the modern watch industry
Such a genius does not fail to be noticed, and soon, it is all the neighbors, then the inhabitants of the region, who order watches to Daniel. He strives to develop his talents by learning engraving and gilding, goes on a pilgrimage to Geneva to perfect his art, and returns to La Sagne where he founded his watchmaking workshop before moving to Le Locle.
For years, he remains the only watchmaker in the Swiss Jura. That is why, before his death on April 20, 1741, he took care to train his five sons in the design of watches; and they themselves will spread the paternal know-how to young apprentices until, under their patronage, the Jeanrichard workshop becomes a flourishing business. Among his descendants, his grandson Louis will be remembered as one of the best watchmakers of his generation.
However, the legacy of Daniel Jeanrichard does not stop there. By setting up his workshop in La Sagne, then in Le Locle, by spreading his knowledge so that it is shared by all, and by promoting the emergence of a surprisingly modern distribution of work, notably by the division of tasks, Jeanrichard challenged (voluntarily or not) the control of the Geneva watchmakers on this art. At that time, in Geneva, a particularly powerful guild of watchmakers prospered, which jealously guarded its know-how in the manufacture of watches. To produce timepieces of excellence, but in small quantities to maintain exorbitant prices, members of the Guild control and centralize production.
But Daniel Jeanrichard, in his corner, explodes this centralized and exclusive system. Via a process called establishment, he introduced the principle of the division of labor into watchmaking: he trained peasants in the Swiss Jura to manufacture specific parts belonging to the watch mechanism, which he later confided to the masters. -horlogers. By creating tools that facilitate production, it increases it and thus encourages the mechanization of the process; as a result, the number of watches available increases and prices fall. Finally, for a maximum of people to want to follow his example, he passionately spreads his knowledge around him, paving the way for what can be called a modern watch industry, between production and learning. This is how Daniel Jeanrichard paved the way for the future emergence of local celebrities like Abraham-Louis Breguet.
A mythical personality
The figure of Daniel Jeanrichard was mythologized immediately after his death, and willingly cultivated throughout the nineteenth century, notably by the Swiss watchmakers conscious valuing authorship of the watch industry facing the Anglo-Saxon competition. To pay tribute to him, the municipality of Le Locle inaugurated on July 15, 1888, a statue of several meters representing him as a local hero.
Since 2012, the luxury watch brand Jeanrichard has experienced a new life, under the leadership of its owner, the Kering Group. Although modernized, and strongly boosted, it remains faithful to the virtues of innovation and know-how advocated by its founder.
The museum dedicated to him, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, exhibits several exceptional watches designed and manufactured by the master. In particular, one can admire the “Daniel” of 1710, adorned with a window calendar, protected by a silver case, and equipped with a movement with escapement wheel encounter. By lifting the telescope, it is even possible to decipher the time simply by placing his finger on the raised index fingers. In short, a true technical and aesthetic masterpiece that remains the best incarnation of the mysterious genius Daniel Jeanrichard.