1866: First Manufacture in the Vallée du Joux
In 1866, when Swiss watchmaking was still structured around small home-run workshops, Antoine LeCoultre and his son Elie decided to bring together under a single roof the many skills involved in making watches, a revolutionary concept for this period, and to install a steam-driven machine to operate their new tools.
LeCoultre & Cie thus became the first Manufacture in the Vallée de Joux. In 19th century, LeCoultre and Cie created more than 350 different movements among which more half contained complications.