Vallée de Joux

The Vallée de Joux is the famous "Watch Valley" in the Swiss Jura and home to many traditional watch manufactures.

It is said that due to the high altitude (around 1000 m above sea level) this valley was closed off through the long winter, and the local population could not be engaged in agriculture. Therefore they began making watches. Unlike the Jura triangle and La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle area, which mass-produce many watches, the Vallée de Joux is focused on complications and high-end watchmaking.

The name of the valley corresponds to the lake located here, "Lac de Joux", the largest lake in the Jura Mountains.

Important places in the Vallée de Joux connected with the watchmaking, listed counter-clockwise around the Lac de Joux:

• Le Lieu
  • Dubois Dépraz
• Le Solliat
  • Philippe Dufour
• Le Sentier
  • Jaeger-LeCoultre headquarters and manufacture
  • Bulgari manufacture (formerly Daniel Roth/Gérald Genta)
  • Romain Gauthier
  • Espace horloger de la Vallée de Joux, museum
  • Ecole Technique de la Vallée de Joux, school
• Le Brassus
  • Audemars Piguet offices, factory, and Hôtel des Horlogers
  • Patek Philippe complication manufacture
  • Vacheron Constantin manufacture
  • Blancpain headquarters and Blancpain Manufacture (formerly Frédéric Piguet)
• L'Orient
  • Manufacture Breguet (formerly Lemania/Nouvelle Lemania)
• Les Bioux
  • ETA (formerly Valjoux)
• L'Abbaye
  • Breguet headquarters
  • Claude Meylan

Weblinks

• Vallée de Joux, offical website