Luxury watch brands place emphasis on quality rather than quantity which is why they produce fewer watches each day with each timepiece crafted by a single watchmaker.

Although luxury watchmakers encountered financial difficulties throughout the ages, watchmakers have retained their “supreme quality” brand identity by committing to the production of “Grande Complication” wristwatches.

It this thought and an invention that led to the first Jaeger LeCoultre brand. Since 1833, the Manufacturer has not only fostered this heritage of invention, creativity, and technical skill. They constantly set out in search of innovation.

The first representative of the LeCoultre family in Switzerland fled his village to Paris to escape the religious persecutions in France. He put the virgin lands of he Joux Valley to good use. He exploited woodland resources and devoted his life to the teaching of culture and religion. It was In 1612 that his son was one of the founders of the village of Le Sentier, where the brand has thrived since 1833.

Antoine LeCoultre was a brilliant inventor and self-taught watchmaker. He founded his first workshop in 1833, after inventing a machine to produce watch making pinions. A series of ancient objects which reveal his inventive spirit in a new light will soon be joining the Heritage collection. Amongst them is an extraordinary device for polishing pinions, designed by the founder of the brand. It allowed him to start out on his own in the industry.

Until the end of the 1820s, Antoine worked in the pinion industry. The various manufacturers would traditionally file down and thin out the pinions. He set out to find an alternative method to manufacture and create the first tool for forming pinions. He also created another tool to cut them. For polishing, he developed a pedal powered machine, which is named after his wife, Zélie. Most probably it was because of the noise it would make in the family home.

La Bringue was created around 1833. It is a small steel and brass machine used to polish the leaves of pinions. The machine consists of a chassis with a pulley on top, which is moved using a hand lever. The pinion fixes between the two ends of the pulley. A wooden grindstone made of fir tree from the Sioux forest operates by a pedal. It is connected to a large wheel by a gut string. The movement of the pulley, which held the pinion beneath the rotating wheel, was used for polishing the leaves.

It was the invention of this machinery that enabled him to create a new pinion industry, which is famous for their shape, their polish, and their durability. At the age of 30, Antoine left the family business and founded the first watchmaking workshop. It was to become the Brand Manufacturer. His brother joined him for a short while until the two brothers decided to go separate ways. Ulysse continued to manufacture pinions while Antoine dedicated his time to the creation of complete movements.