Two museums were dedicated to watchmaking in Pays Horloger, just that! And to give a new setting to these exceptional collections, a large-scale project is underway: La Cité des Horlogers. While waiting to discover this extraordinary place, a selection of the collections of the Watch Museum and the Clock Museum are grouped together at the Draft.
With watchmaking activity fully integrated into the lifestyles of the inhabitants, it is also discussed in other museums in our region but also in our Swiss neighbors.
From watches to clocks, this exceptional know-how is in the hands of passionate craftsmen.
Watchmaking know-how, so well established in Pays Horloger, is included on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The Jura Arc is a region in which craftsmanship remains particularly vibrant, thanks to the presence of highly skilled artisans and businesses that contribute to the promotion of know-how, as well as the establishment of a comprehensive training offer. Historically, entire families practiced this practice, developing learning methods as well as professional and family alliances. Learning skills generally begins in training schools. Today, blogs, forums, online tutorials, and open collaborative projects allow practitioners to share their expertise. This know-how has an economic function, but it has also shaped the architecture, urban planning, and daily social reality of the regions concerned. The practice conveys many values such as a taste for a job well done, punctuality, perseverance, creativity, dexterity, and patience. Moreover, the endless quest for precision and the intangible aspect of measuring time give this practice a strong philosophical dimension. UNESCO source.
Originally
Watchmaking is developing in Haut-Doubs (current Pays horloger) from the mid-18th century to supply its Swiss neighbor with components and labor. It is particularly suited to local topographical and climatic conditions: when the snow confines the inhabitants – particularly the peasants – to their homes, it provides them with seasonal activity. This industry is characterized, within the framework of the establishment, by the importance of homework where the watchmaker works "on the window" and with his family, with tools manufactured in Gras and Montécheroux.
Railways and electricity = industrialization and acceleration
If the need for mechanization was revealed by the Universal Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, it was above all the arrival of the railway in 1884 and of electricity from 1895 which would accelerate the industrialization of the valley of Morteau and the Maîche and Russey plateaus. The workshops gathered in the towns, where factories appeared such as the Parrenin ébauche factories in Villers-le-Lac (1877) and the Belzon watch factories in Morteau (1881).
Fragile euphoria
The area held a virtual monopoly on the cylinder escapement, the most widespread until the 1930s and 1940s, but the temporary closure of the Swiss market in 1892 encouraged component manufacturers to convert to watch production. The number of workshops exploded during the interwar period and the Trente Glorieuses. This fragile euphoria was doomed by globalization and the technological upheavals linked to quartz, which led to the disappearance of most companies from the 1970s onwards. Around ten continue their activities today, mainly in Swiss subcontracting, manufacturing, or assembling watches.
Discover the artisans of our region and their expertise.
