The birth of the artisan watchmaker.
IImier de Ramstein granted a tax exemption for anyone willing to make their home on the Haut Plateau of the Jura. From the 1400s, the conferring of this exemption enabled many settlers to come to the region and build farms. Harsh winters forced farmers to find trades. They produced tools and were involved in lace and hosiery production. Having built on this expertise, they started to manufacture watch and clock components from the 17th century.
It is said that the first watchmakers in the Franches-Montagnes region were Captain Girard, François-J. Froidevaux or J-B Mauvais who, having set up at La Planche farm in the village of Les Bois around 1769, produced movement blanks which sold for 50 batz each. People also talk about Joseph Bouverat, a watchcase maker at Les Breuleux in 1730, who learned his trade at Le Noirmont with the watchcase maker, goldsmith and engineer François Surdez. Froidevaux also owned the Rosées farm in the village of Les Bois. The farmhouse had numerous windows, proving the extent of watchmaking activities that were taking place. There were a good number of farms such as this on the outskirts of La Chaux-de-Fonds: a testament to the long heritage of watchmaking in Switzerland. The greater the number of windows that were built into a farmhouse, the richer a farmer would be as an artisan would be working behind each window. On the ground floor, these windows were fitted with bars in order to offer protection from bears. Behind the windows, large tables would be found on which components were manufactured. There were also buildings where raw material would be melted down. The Franches-Montagnes or the Franche-Comté region comprised a multitude of artisan watchmakers who would take their products to the counters of shops in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle. The journey was long and was made on foot, often over snow-covered terrain. Nonetheless, it was worth the effort as the rewards contributed significantly to the family's "bread and butter"…
