Last fall we saw the opening of the Heritage Gallery in the historical building of the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre. The temporary exhibition has already changed and the current exhibition shows pictures of the Swiss photographer Balthasar Burkhard.

Photography is an essential art for watchmaking companies as they need photography to present their products. Watches are more and more objects of desire so the desire must be initiated through pictures.

A picture as a teaser

Photography is much more than a mere tool for Jaeger-LeCoultre. The last issue of the Jaeger-LeCoultre catalogue shows many beautiful pictures by Balthasar Burkhard. Following his work in the catalog, some of his pictures are now exhibited (till the 10^th of April). Balthasar Burkhard is fascinated by Jaeger-LeCoultre and Jaeger-LeCoultre is fascinated by Balthasar Burkhard! I'm sure that you'll be fascinated too once you'll get deeper into the JLC catalog!

Balthasar Burkhard's work for Jaeger-LeCoultre is only black and white so far. He shows a very strong point of view of the Vallee de Joux and also of the Manufacture. In the catalog the views of the Vallee are completed by earlier pics of other subjects. You will also notice that the watch pics in the catalog are much nicer this year too!

Lac de Joux by Balthasar Burkhard

We need to go back to the roots of the photography in the Grande Maison history. This story begun at the end of the Twenties in England. The businessman, politician and pilot Noel Pemberton Billing promised to create a new camera with all functions and able to fit into a cigarette packet. He created during his career many things and founded at least a  company that later became Supermarine, the original Spitfire constructor. I won't get into more details about his life but the point of interest for us is that he went to the Vallee de Joux in 1934 to ask Le Coultre and Co to develop and build his Compass camera. His project was welcomed and the new camera was launched after three years of work in 1937.

Compass Camera by LeCoultre

The Compass camera was a very advanced camera for its time and with its full functionalities it remained in history as a landmark. Unfortunately the Second World War soon interrupted its production and the fact that it was using an English standard of film didn't help. There are still examples in several museums.

That was the first and only product of photography in the The Grande Maison's history.

Time or light

Jaeger-LeCoultre has since had for many years a collaboration with many photographers and institutions. There was an exhibition in 2005 with the Musee de l'Elysee in Lausanne, that was followed in 2006 by a book called "Portraits de Manufacture" with some of the photographers exposed in Lausanne.

Printed photography

There were also several exhibitions in Paris at the Musee du Jeu de Paume that were supported by JLC.

Virtual photography

The next step was the book "La Grande Maison", recently launched, that brings the vision of four different photographers about Jaeger-LeCoultre. Those photographers are Catherine Gardone, Maurizio Galimberti, Douglas Kirkland, and Claude Joray. This book is very beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to look at.

History photography

The last publication is the Year book, just issued. It shows the art work of many photographers, about horology or not. Definitely a book to get for JLC fans.

Space, time and photography

I should not forget the pictures of Claude Joray in the Grande Complication a Triptyque book, also just issued, and coming after the first book on the Gyrotourbillon 1.

To some extent and to bring a link I would say that the timepiece gives us an instantaneous vision of the time in the world like the camera gives us an instantaneous vision of the light and the landscape the light shows. The time and the light are two different ways of considering our world in all its dimensions.

Made up for eye photography

You've understood that we are here for the timepieces but that we greatly appreciate to see those extraordinary watches pictured by some real talented photographers. We are always happy to see the art extend from the object to the subject, and from the subject to its projection towards us!

Even a simple watch calibre like above can become a subject of interest, at least for us.

We are currently hoping for many new great watches, many new desirable objects, and hopefully we will get the best out of them as subjects!  :-)

Dje