La Joux-Perret
|
La Joux-Perret
|
La Joux-Perret (formerly Jaquet SA or Jaquet-Baume) is a Swiss movement manufacturer, now owned by Citizen of Japan.
History
Jaquet-Baume SA was founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the 1990s and specialized assembling and finishing ebauches from ETA and the development of advanced complications, including tourbillons. It evolved from the antique watch and component reselling business of founder Jean-Pierre Jaquet. The company later supported companies such as Hublot with the development of watches. During the early 2000s, Jaquet generated sales of about CHF 22 million, with customers including Franck Muller, Girard-Perregaux, Sinn, Maurice Lacroix, FP Journe, Eberhard, and the Richemont brands.
The company, named for founder Jean-Pierre Jaquet, was renamed to La Joux-Perret following his 2003 arrest for counterfeiting and forgery, which was popularly known as "The Jaquet Affair". It was reorganized under Prothor Holdings under CEO Frédéric Wenger along with Eric Loth, Rudolf Bohli, and other investors. Jaquet was bought out of the company secretly between March, 2003 and 2004 for a reported CHF 11 million.
La Joux-Perret has worked closely with Sellita, with that company supplying ebauches and purchasing parts. It also supplies watch manufacturers like Armin Strom, Chanel, LVMH Moët-Hennessy Louis Vuitton TAG Heuer, Financière Richemont, and Hermès International. Jaquet/LJP was also credited with the development of Cal. HUB44 for Hublot as well as the tourbillon used by Romain Jérôme in their Master Tourbillon.
The former well known movement AS 5008 with alarm function was reproduced by La Joux-Perret as calibre LJP 5800 (5900) (and is for example used in the Financial District Alarm Watch Sinn 6066 or with the Oris Artelier Alarm).
Prothor acquired Arnold & Son in May, 2010 from The British Masters, which was also partly owned by Jean-Pierre Jaquet. The company had previously produced most of the Arnold watches. They immediately began bulking up the lineup of that manufacturer and using it to prove new movement designs that their OEM customers had not wanted to purchase. On March 5, 2012 was announced, that Citizen Watch, part of the Citizen Holding, has bought Prothor, including La Joux-Perret and Arnold & Son.<ref>Japaner kaufen Neuenburger Uhrenhersteller La Joux-Perret, tagesanzeiger.ch, 5.3.2012</ref> The transaction was said to be in the amount of CHF 64 million.
In 2014, Citizen announced a new line of Campanola-branded automatic watches which are designed and manufactured by La Joux-Perret and assembled in Japan.
In 2015, La Joux-Perret relaunched the watch brand Angelus, which had been lying dormant for more than 30 years.
Movements
See Also
- ETA 2892 modules
- Jaquet Droz - An unrelated La Chaux-de-Fonds watch manufacturer, part of Swatch Group
- Jaquet - A historic watch maker from St. Imier, Bern currently not engaged in watch production (currently Jaquet Technology Group)
- Jean Perret Montres SA - A Geneva-based watch maker founded in 1893
- Paul Perret - A fashion watch brand founded in 2014 and named for a 19th century La Chaux-de-Fonds watchmaker
Address
Manufacture La Joux-Perret S.A.
Boulevard des Eplatures 38
CH-2304 La Chaux-de-Fonds
Tel. +41 (0)32 967 97 97
Fax +41 (0)32 968 07 55