A TRIP TO WATCH COUNTRY

WHILE DRIVING AROUND THE MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS OUTSIDE GENEVA,IT’S HARD

to believe that many of the world’s most famous and fabulous watches are made there. The

biggest names in the industry — Rolex, Hublot, Breitling — are located in the little villages nestled

in these verdant, rural Swiss valleys. It is in these villages that renowned watchmakers work their

magic, all the while viewing grazing cows and church steeples outside their windows. The first

watchmakers, legend holds, were farmers who used the many months of snowy winter to hone

their watchmaking skills, and today the industry flourishes in this same quiet, bucolic setting.

The village of Le Solliat is home to arguably the most famous watchmaker of today,

Philippe Dufour, as well as of yesteryear: Louis François Reymond, the watchmaker to King

Louis XVI of France. Mr. Dufour’s atelier, in a former schoolhouse where his daughters used to at-

tend classes, and which he shares today with a cheesemaker, is right next door to the farm-

house where Mr. Reymond made the King’s timepiece. Driving around this village and others, it’s

easy to find the farmhouses where watchmakers are at work, Mr. Dufour says — just look for

homes with an extra-large expanse of windows, since excessive natural light is a necessity for execut-

ing the intricacies of this profession.

Mr. Dufour grew up barely a

stone’s throw from where he works

today, in the neighboring village of Le

Sentier, where he attended the École

Technique, which has trained many of

the current and future watchmakers.

When students graduate, they have

merely to head down the street to find

work at Jaeger-LeCoultre, Patek

Philippe or Vacheron Constantin. Or

they can go a few kilometers farther, to the village of Le Brassus, where Audemars Piguet and Blanc-

pain are headquartered. These villages are all part of the famed Vallée de Joux, the birthplace of

Swiss watchmaking, high in the Jura mountains, some 30 miles north of Geneva.

Valleé de Joux

Driving north we reach the neighboring Val-de-Travers (or Twisted Valley) that also con-

tributed to watchmaking history. This is where the village of Fleurier is located, and where

Top: Espace Hologer, Center: Rolex factory Bottom: Patek Philippe factory factories. Centuries ago, the craftsmen of Fleurier specialized in the arts of

engraving and enameling in order to create watches that appealed to an

acquisitive Chinese market. These skills of adornment still flourish today in the

sleepy village of Fleurier, producing some of the finest, most complicated and

most expensive watches in the world, all within earshot of tinkling cow bells.

WHEN YOU GO

● Rent a car. Or rely on the Swiss rail service, which has trains that go to these little villages. Once you alight from the train, however, don’t expect to find a stand of taxis waiting. You’ll need to hire one in advance. Or you can walk; the villages are small, and you can pass most of the big-name factories on a walk around town.

Or rely on the Swiss rail service, which has trains that go to these little villages. Once you alight from the train, however, don’t expect to find a stand of taxis waiting. You’ll need to hire one in advance. Or you can walk; the villages are small, and you can pass most of the big-name factories on a walk around town.

● Take a bike tour. You can rent electric bikes, or E-bikes, through the Vallée de Joux tourism office in Le Sentier or at the Sentier-Orient train station. The Vallée de Joux tourism office provides a map of 26 farms, many dating back to the 1400s, where watchmakers lived and worked. As you bike the route, through the rolling green countryside encircling the Lac du Joux, you’ll also pass the “manufactures”, or factories, of today’s greatest watch maisons. Look for Jaeger-LeCoultre, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet and Blancpain.

● Hit the museums. There are several museums in the region that provide an excellent inside-view of the art of watchmaking. One of the newest, and best, is the Espace Horloger in Le Sentier, which features an information-packed, interactive experience in English, French and German. Screens allow visitors to disassemble a watch and learn all about the various skills required to make one. Three hundred timepieces made in the Vallée de Joux are on display — the earliest from 1720, and the latest, a simplicite’ wristwatch, hand-made just down the street by Philippe Dufour.

● Book a hotel. There are some small inns in and around these villages. Watchmaking Central used to be the Hotel des Horlogers in Le Brassus, where executives from the major watch companies often met and dined. Audemars Piguet recently bought the inn, however, and plans on replacing it with a 5-star hotel. In the meantime, the Hotel de la Lande offers spare but pleasant rooms and dining just down the street, while Bellevue le Rocheray in Le Sentier, overlooking the Lac du Joux, provides more gracious dining and accommodations.