THE HISTORY OF BLANCPAIN

IN TIME
It is with some trepidation that one opens
a topic with as leaden a title as the
“History of Blancpain”, or the history of anything
else for that matter. If what is produced
does not rival the “Rise and Fall of the
Roman Empire” in its panorama, then perhaps
the exercise might be seen as somewhat
of a trivial pursuit.
Happily paths have been blazed to lighten
the burden. As long as we don’t try to do
too much with it, not to gloat, not to
preach, not to extract lessons for the future,
the exploration can be made what it should
be, entertaining. After all Oscar Wilde was
not too far off the mark when he said that
“History is merely gossip”. So put aside
VILLERET CIRCA 2008. ABOVE, THE FORMER BLANCPAIN FAMILY HOME.
notions of learning from the past, safe in
George Bernard Shaw’s counsel that “we
learn from history that man can never learn
from history” and simply enjoy this history
as a casual tourist; on an adventure into
both different times and places taking in
stories and tales.
Our tale begins with a school teacher
turned watchmaker, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain
in the Jura village of Villeret. The founding
was by today’s standards modest. The workshop
was located on the second story of
Jehan-Jacques’ farmhouse; the inhabitants
of the first floor were horses and cattle.
Remarkably, the building constructed in
1636, and originally purposed as a mail relay
station, still stands today. Jehan-Jacques’
house strategically brought three professions
into convenient proximity – animal breeding
below, watches above – and the school just
50 metres down the road. It seems reasonably
clear, however, that Jehan-Jacques
considered himself first and foremost a
THE HISTORY