====== Bautte, Jean-Francois ======
{{wst>image_r|Bautte,_Jean-Francois|Jean-Francois Bautte\\ (1772-1837)}}
**Jean-Francois Bautte** was a Swiss watchmaker and watch dealer.

Jean-Francois Bautte was born on March 26, [[1772]] in [[Geneva]], the son of [[enamel]] specialist Abraham Bautte and his wife Marie-Anne. He orphaned early, as the father dies when he is a year old, and his mother commits suicide when he is ten.

Already with twelve he in [[1784]] begins to work for the case maker Jacques Dauphin Moulinier as a messenger; then there follows a craft apprenticeship, in which he is educated as case maker, guilloching expert, watchmaker and goldsmith. Because of his great talent in [[1793]] he becomes partner of Moulinier.

Already in [[1791]] the 19-year-old had signed his first watches. Moulinier and Bautte from [[1793]] also traded with complete watches. The movements were mostly purchased, while the cases came from their own production. After the Napoleonic Wars a small factory grew out of the [[manufacture]], which brought together all watchmaking crafts of that time under one roof. An excellent businessman, Bautte traded with all courts of Europe and became one of the most famous watchmakers of his time. He is also regarded as the first who made extra flat watches.

Jean-Francois Bautte died [[1837]]. After his death, Jacques and Jean Samuel Rossel Bautte took over the company. The company Bautte in [[1906]] merges into the [[manufacture]] [[Girard-Perregaux]], which since then counts the year [[1791]] as the beginning of their own history.


{{tag>Biographies}}