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| JeanRichard Watch |
Daniel JeanRichard was born around the year 1665 in La Sagne, today a small farming village in a high valley of the mountain range that separates the plateau of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle from Neuchatel on the quiet shores of the lake of the same name. In the seventeenth century La Sagne was larger than today's industrial cities on the plateau, or, perhaps better stated, not quite as small as the other unimportant places in the central Swiss Jura.
Daniel JeanRichard's father and grandfather were justices of the peace and smiths in La Sagne, which didn't actually mean that their lots in life were better than those of the rest of the farming folk. The JeanRichards had perhaps a few more visitors than those of agricultural and forestry occupations, and this was the reason that a horse dealer passing through noticed the filigreed iron wares and silver jewelry that young Daniel had created on long winter evenings.
The dealer had an English pocket watch in his baggage that had stopped working somewhere between London and Basel. The young JeanRichard with his obvious talent appeared trustworthy to him, and he gave Daniel the valuable timepiece to repair. He wanted to pick it up again a few weeks later on his way home from Geneva.
Daniel JeanRichard repaired the watch with his primitive tools - and more. During the repair process he had memorized all of the details, allowing him to build an exact replica of the watch during the following winter. No one had been able to construct his own pocket watch in the entire canton of Neuchatel up to that point. The year was 1679, and Daniel JeanRichard was just fourteen years of age.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the brand name JeanRichard was awakened to new life by the SoWind Group on the initiative of its president Luigi Macaluso. By leaving off the watchmaker's first name, the brand's moniker is now more easily remembered. At the same time the model
palette has been consistently expanded into the upper segments of watchmaking - including a tourbillon.
The characteristic look of JeanRichard watches is clearly sculpted according to 1940s models, for example the TV Screen models available in various case sizes from "Lady" to "XXL," whose case of roundly squared contours does really remind one of a TV screen. The authentic nickname originates in the late' 40s, as does the brushed case finish reminiscent of Staybrite, one of the first rust- and spot-free stainless steel alloys.
The JeanRichard brand recently moved into the main building of Schwob Freres in La Chaux-deFonds, the founding place of the Cyma watch brand, and opened an interesting museum for tools and tooling machines in the building now known as Villa JeanRichard.
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JeanRichard Watch
Tradema of America, Inc.
201 Route 17 North, 8th Floor
Rutherford, NJ 07070
Tel.: 1-877-357-8463
Fax: 201-507-1553
www.djr-usa.com
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