Louis-Edouard Huguenin-Jeanneret

Louis-Edouard Huguenin-Jeanneret (1894-1973) was the third generation of the Huguenin family to produce escapements in Le Locle. He inherited the La Concorde factory from his father, Charles-Louis Huguenin, following his death in 1940, and his son (also of the same name) took over on his retirement.

Charles and Lewis Huguenin of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds

The Huguenin families of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds were quite large and involved in watchmaking. Many were named Charles or Lewis, and even those that had other names (or hyphenated versions) commonly used these names. It can be quite confusing, since records show "Louis Huguenin" of Le Locle being active in watchmaking from the 1880s through the 1980s, though this represents three generations.

Early Life

Louis-Edouard Huguenin was born in 1894 in Le Locle and was commonly called "Louis Huguenin" throughout his life. His father, Charles-Louis Huguenin (also called "Louis Huguenin"), was prominent and respected in the town and operated a workshop to produce assortiments there. His mother was Adèle Favre and came from another family involved in Le Locle watchmaking. His parents were married in August 1891, shortly before the death of his grandfather, Charles-Lewis Huguenin-Virchaux, who had founded the factory with his brother, Williams Huguenin-Virchaux.

Louis Huguenin attended the school of watchmaking in Le Locle and was awarded a "first class notice with mention" on graduation in 1915. By this time he had already started working at his father's workshop, a landmark factory now called La Concorde after the street on which it was built. Like his father, Lewis Huguenin saw an opportunity in bringing together various components of the watchmaking industry and dedicated his professional career to advancing the interests of his family, his home town and its workers, and the Swiss watchmaking industry.

In 1917, Louis and his brother Willy were brought into management of the La Concorde factory. It was soon updated with the modern hipped roof, and was growing rapidly. His father remained active in management of the factory as well as industry groups like FSR and Louis became interested in the emerging cartels. After Ebauches SA was created, Louis Huguenin pushed for the creation of ASUAG and a cartel of assortiment factories within it. This would become Fabriques d'Assortiments Réunies, which was founded in 1932 with Louis Huguenin serving as vice president.