I love beautiful things and recently my eyes have been opened to the wonder of watches. Particularly Swiss mechanical watches. These tend to be assembled by hand and each one can take months to finish. The attention to detail, craftsmanship, design and function are all fascinating to me. They vary immensely in price from £3000 to £100000 and vintage watches can fetch much, much more.
I noticed recently, that most of the big manufacturers were all based in the same valley in Switzerland and it wasn't too far away from us in the Alps. So we packed a lunch, lathered on the sunscreen and went for a drive.
The Vallee de Joux lies in the Jura mountain range on the western edge of southern Switzerland. The countryside is so different to that of the Alps, with it's rolling, soft mountains and distant valleys visible from it's hilltops. At the centre of the valley is the Lac de Joux and this is where we centered our tour around.
Le Brassus
Dropping out of the Alps from Chamonix, France where we are based this summer, we drove around Geneva and into the Jura range. The roads are fantastic once you get off from the motorways, quiet, curvy and with stunning views. Cresting over the last hill and into the Vallee de Joux were we confronted with this wonderful scene. The village of Le Brassus in the background and pastures with cows and rustic buildings in the foreground - a photographers dream!
The Watchmakers
Quite a few of the famous watchmakers are based in Le Brassus. Including Audemars Piguet who were established there in 1875 and still continue to make watches in Le Brassus to this day. Patek Philippe moved there in 2010 - their most expensive wristwatch sold last year at auction for £4.95 million.
In 1750, the farmers in the Vallee du Joux needed a way of increasing their incomes during the winter months so took to making watch components and selling them onto the manufacturers. This grew and grew until the manufacturers moved to where the talent was located. The watchmaker's valley was born.
Switzerland
I love Switzerland but it can be a frustrating place to visit. I wanted a coffee on the drive over but as soon as we crossed the Swiss border all service stations and civilisation appeared to stop. No coffee for me but we did find a supermarket that sold Red Bull - so the caffeine crisis was averted.
In Le Brassus itself, there appeared to be no shops selling the watches or even any evidence of the watchmaking other than the buildings themselves. I would liked to have seen works of art based around watchmaking to decorate the village as I'm sure they get lots of watchmaker tourists - massive wheels, crowns or hands - just a thought.
