Jämes Favre

Jämes Favre president of Zénith after the death of its founder (his uncle and father-in-law) Georges Favre-Jacot. Favre also owned Le Phare at this time but fell on difficulties and was forced out of all of these businesses in 1926. He was born in 1869 and died in 1934.

Jämes Favre was born in 1869 in Saint-Imier but Ponts-de-Martel is cited as his home town in legal filings. He worked for his father's watchmaking firm there before moving to Le Locle in 1896 to work at the factory of his uncle, Georges Favre-Jacot. Jämes soon married his daughter and was named second manager of the limited partnership, now commonly called Zénith, in 1905.

In 1911, under the direction of Jämes Favre, Fabre-Jacot's firm was transformed into a public limited company. Georges Favre-Jacot soon retired, leaving the management of Zénith in the hands of Jämes and his partners.

Jämes Favre was credited as "the great craftsman of the Zénith brand" in his obituary, and directed the company to create complete mass-produced watches. He also focused solely on the Zénith brand, retiring the firm's other makes, "Georges Favre-Jacot", "Billodes", and "Diogène" and more.

Jämes Favre was also one of the founders of the watchmaking association of the district of Le Locle and a member of the Central Committee of the Swiss Chamber of Horology from 1917 to 1919 and assisted in the reorganization of this organization as well.

He managed Zénith through World War I, adapting the factory to produce ammunition, and weathered the post-war economic crisis but was unable to retain his grip on the company. In the spring of 1925 he was forced out of all of the Zénith entities and indeed the entire watchmaking industry.

Jämes Favre died in April 1934 at the age of 64.