Although the birth of luxury timepieces are often associated with Geneva and Basel, the cradle of Swiss watchmaking lies deep in Switzerland’s Jura Mountains. Since 1748, the postcard-worthy Vallée de Joux has been the birthplace of world-renowned watch brands, including Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and David Candaux.
An hour’s drive from Geneva, the Vallée de Joux protects 26 traditional watch farms that scatter the hillsides, where watchmakers once spent long winters perfecting pocket watches and wristwatches. Although most of these watch farms are no longer functional—climate change and the industrial revolution forced family businesses to migrate to larger factories in the city—their multimillion dollar legacies prove that a slow artisan craft can keep pace in a hurried high-tech world.
“A watch is not just an object. People put their hearts into what they’re doing. It carries a little bit of soul,” says Nathalie Veysset, a watch strategist who works with master watchmaker David Candaux.
Thanks to a surge of dedicated blogs, influencers, clubs, and second-hand watch sales, the Swiss watch industry broke records in 2022, with exports rising to a new all-time record high of $27.5 billion, due to a rush of luxury spending over the pandemic.
Many of the valley’s flagship brands have opened their doors to watch lovers from all over the world. Here’s how travelers can have an immersive horological experience—from visiting museums and workshops to participating in watchmaking classes.
Inside Olivier Piguet’s restored 19th-century watch farm is a cache of timepieces, with clocks, pocket and wristwatches, and drawers jammed full of spindly hands, buffed crystal, and rigid leather straps. Here, at the Centre d’Initiation à l’Horlogerie, travelers can spend a weekend experiencing the art of watchmaking. Students take to the benches, meticulously dismantling, oiling, and reassembling basic timepieces.
(The antique tools used to keep timeless timepieces ticking.)
Piguet, a 10th-generation watchmaker, says his family was one of the several Huguenots or Protestants that fled France from persecution during the French Wars of Religion to Switzerland in the mid-1500s. Many of the refugees moved to the Jura Mountains as farmers. Meanwhile, others, many already skilled watchmakers, flocked to the city of Geneva, transforming the Swiss watchmaking industry.
“Historically, we have a reputation for top level quality. Our watches have been named the most complicated, the flattest, the smallest,” says Piguet. Since 2020, the craftsmanship of mechanical watchmaking and art mechanics have been inscribed on the UNESCO list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
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Last week Lufthansa made history. Weeks ahead of its major European rivals, the airline resumed scheduled services to Israel. As of last Monday, the German carrier is offering four weekly flights between Frankfurt and Tel Aviv and three from Munich. The routes mark the first time the company has operated to the country since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in early October.
Tucked into the northwestern tip of Italy and surrounded by towering peaks such as Mont Blanc, Matterhorn and Monte Rosa, the autonomous Aosta Valley region packs a serious Alpine punch. Despite being the smallest and least populous of Italy’s regions, the area is a haven for lovers of winter sports. The regional capital, Aosta, is a well-connected hub that’s the perfect base from which to explore a total of 19 ski resorts in the surrounding area.
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The world's most powerful passports for 2024 have been revealed — with the biggest shake-up in rankings we've seen in several years, including a never-before-seen six nations in first place.
Over the last five years, the world has changed a lot. A global pandemic ground much of the global population to a halt with travel the most restricted it's ever been in my lifetime – and most likely yours too. Russia’s war on Ukraine and now Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza are causing shockwaves around the world, reshaping the statuses of countries and the rights of their citizens.
It was 2:38 p.m. on August 21, 2017, when day turned to night. That was the precise moment in Greenville, South Carolina, when the moon, passing between the sun and Earth, fully blocked our view of the sun.