Jean Blanchet was a Swiss watchmaker who grew up at Lyons in France where his father Pierre Blanchet owned a small watch dial factory.
Since his youth, Jean Blanchet was fascinated by the French and Swiss watch tradition. He launched his own watch manufacturing firm in 1789. From the beginning, his company was successful throughout Europe. He eventually created his own eponymous line of Swiss watches, Blanchet.
In 1828 Jean Blanchet married Laura Wilson, the daughter of an English ambassador. One year later she gave birth to their son Yves Blanchet. In the age of 20 Yves decided to go to the Royal School of Watchmaking (École Royale de l'Horlogerie de Cluses).
Yves took over the company in 1852, when Jean died during an accident. Four years later he moved close to the Lake of Geneva, in Coppet, to perfect his watchmaking technique and start his own business " Manufacture d'Horologerie Blanchet & Cie".
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand. Modern watchmakers, when required to repair older watches, for which replacement parts may not be available, must have fabrication skills, and can typically manufacture replacements for many of the parts found in a watch. The term clockmaker refers to an equivalent occupation specializing in clocks.
IWC International Watch Co. AG, doing business as IWC Schaffhausen, is a luxury Swiss watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Founded by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, IWC has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2000.
Aaron Lufkin Dennison was an American watchmaker and businessman who founded a number of companies.
Bulova is an American watch brand founded in 1875 and currently owned by Japanese conglomerate Citizen Watch Co. It manufactures watches and clocks and is based in New York City. Bulova's Swiss-Made line is known as Bulova Accu•Swiss and was formerly known as Bulova Accutron.
Vacheron ConstantinSA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1755. Since 1996, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Vacheron Constantin is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It employs around 1,200 people worldwide as of 2018, most of whom are based in the company's manufacturing plants in Canton of Geneva and Vallée de Joux in Switzerland.
Piaget SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker and jeweller. Founded in 1874 by Georges Piaget in the village of La Côte-aux-Fées, Piaget is currently a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont group.
Édouard Bovet (1797–1849) was a Swiss watchmaker and founder of the Bovet Fleurier watch company.
Ulysse NardinSA is a Swiss luxury watchmaking company founded in 1846 in Le Locle, Switzerland.
Girard-Perregaux SA is a luxury Swiss watch manufacture with its origins dating back to 1791. Since 2011, the Swiss holding group of Girard-Perregaux, Sowind Group, has been a subsidiary of the French Kering Group. Headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the company opened the Girard-Perregaux Museum near its headquarters in Villa Marguerite in 1999.
Franck Muller is a Swiss watchmaker and the company of the same name. The brand of watches carries the slogan "Master of Complications". Franck Muller's watches are worn by various celebrities, among them Demi Moore, Elton John, 50 Cent, Lil Uzi Vert, and José Mourinho. Franck Muller timepieces are famous for their fusion of "modern" style, mostly inspired by American watches from the thirties, like "Elgin tonneau", and traditional Swiss watch manufacturing.
Blancpain SA is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, headquartered in Paudex/Le Brassus, Switzerland. It designs, manufactures, distributes, and sells prestige and luxury mechanical watches. Founded by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in Villeret, Switzerland in 1735, Blancpain is the oldest surviving watchmaking brand in the world.
Manufacture d'horlogerie is a French language term of horology that has also been adopted in the English language as a loanword. In horology, the term is usually encountered in its abbreviated form manufacture. This term is used when describing a wrist watch movement or watchworks fabricator which makes all or most of the parts required for its products in its own production facilities, as opposed to simply assembling watches using parts purchased from other firms.
Maîtres du Temps is a Swiss watch company. Founded in 2005 by Steven Holtzman, the brand is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The brand launched in Geneva in 2008 with Chapter One, a watch developed by Christophe Claret, Roger Dubuis and Peter Speake-Marin.
Sandoz is a Swiss watch brand, originally established in the late 19th century by Henri Sandoz near Tavannes, Switzerland. There are now many variations of the Sandoz name which are used by at least four different companies around the world.
The Gruen Watch Company was formerly one of the largest watch manufacturers in the United States. It was in business from about 1894 to 1958 and was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1908 by German-born watchmaker Dietrich Grün, who changed the spelling of his name to "Gruen" because the letter ü does not exist in English.
Mathey-Tissot is a Swiss watch maker of prestige watches, originally established in the late 19th century by Edmond Mathey-Tissot at Les Ponts-de-Martel in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.
Blanchet is an historic watch brand stated in Switzerland in 1819 by Jean Blanchet. The current owner of Blanchet is the D Group, which relaunched the brand in 2010.
Solvil et Titus is a formerly Swiss, now Hong-Kong-based, watch company, founded in 1887 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Neuchâtel, Switzerland by Paul Ditisheim and developed by Paul Bernard Vogel.
Paul Bernard Vogel was a Swiss industrialist who owned the Solvil et Titus watch manufacture.
Arcadia Watches is a Swiss brand of luxury watches established in 1858. In 1968 the brand ceased following a decline caused by the introduction of quartz movements. It was relaunched in 2007 by Claude Sanz, owner and President of Maison Bunter based in Geneva, and the first new Arcadia watch, the AC01, entered the market in 2010.