LeCoultre, Charles Antoine

Charles Antoine LeCoultre was a Swiss watchmaker and co-founder of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Charles-Antoine LeCoultre was born on 16 April 1803, the son of a Huguenot family who came to the Vallée de Joux in the middle of the 16th century. From his father he learned the craft of the cutler, in whose workshop one also focused on the refining of steel for watches.

LeCoultre learned the craft of watchmaking self-taught. 1833, together with his brother François Ulysse LeCoultre he became self-employed and founded the watch factory LeCoultre & Co. in Le Sentier in the Vallée de Joux, which later became the famous manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre. One first began with the preparation of gears and pinions, later complete ebauche movements were produced.

  LeCoultre developed both industrial machines as well as precision instruments, such as, in 1844, the Millionometer, in 1847 the Baseul winding and twenty years later a calibre, which he called himself “remontoir a vue”.

Charles-Antoine LeCoultre died on April 26, 1881.

• Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World; Author Baillie, G. H.; ISBN 140679113X
• Das ZEITGEFÜHL-Uhrenbuch; Author Gerd-Lothar Reschke; ISBN 3-938607-61-0