The first brand to start making timepieces, founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain. The watchmaker started making his timepieces in the upper floor of his house at Villeret, in the present-day Bernese Jura.
In 1815, Frédéric-Louis Blancpain (Jehan-Jacques’s great grandson) was head of the family business at the time, modernized the production methods and turned the traditional craft workshop into an industrial undertaking capable of serial production. Frédéric-Louis also introduced a major innovation into the watchmaking world by replacing the crown-wheel mechanism with a cylinder escapement. In around the 1850’s, as the industrialization took hold, the prices of watchmaking products were falling drastically and many workshops started to shut down. To compete with the American watchmakers, Blancpain built a two-storey factory by the River Suze and used water power to supply the electricity needed for its production processes in 1865. By developing and modernizing its methods and concentrating on their finest products, Blancpain became one of the few watchmaking firms to survive in Villeret. In 1926, the Manufacture entered into a partnership with John Harwood and started marketing the first automatic wristwatch.
However, in 1932 the Blancpain family lost its control over the brand due to the death of Frédéric-Emile Blancpain, and his only daughter Berthe-Nellie not fancying being a watchmaker. The year after, two of the closest staff member’s to Frédéric, Betty Fiechter and André Léal, decided to buy the business.
