Founded: 1681
Founding place: possibly La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
Founded by: Daniel Jeanrichard
Current headquarters: La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
Owned by: privately held
Official name: JeanRichard SA
Table of contents
Daniel Jeanrichard creates his first watch at 16?
The history of Jeanrichard begins in the 17th century. According to the website of the Swiss brand the company began in 1681. This was when Daniel Jeanrichard (1665-1741) “created his first watch – the very first ever made in the region – before going on to establish his own watchmaking workshop”. So, he was 16 when he created his first watch.
The story goes that “one day, when he was still young and had no experience of watchmaking, he was given an English watch that no longer worked. While repairing it, he carefully studied the mechanism and decided to make one just like it himself”. It is unclear if there is any evidence of Jeanrichard’s first watch and the story about how he got involved into watchmaking. It reads like a short fairytale.
Girard-Perregaux takes over Jeanrichard
The Jeanrichard Museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, conserves several Jeanrichard watches, including the “Daniel” watch from 1710. It is also unclear if this is the oldest existing watch by Jeanrichard.
At a certain point Jeanrichard was taken over by Girard-Perregaux. Both brands came into the hands of the Sowind Group SA (we don’t know when). In 2008 the Kering Group buys a stake in the Sowind Group and from 2011 the Kering Group is the owner with a 50.1% stake. In 2012, the Jeanrichard brand relaunches with the support of the Kering Group, but today the domain name of Jeanrichard.com leads directly to the website of Girard-Perregaux.
The history of Jeanrichard in a timeline
1665 – Birth of Daniel Jeanrichard in Les Bressels, Switzerland
1681 – Starts his own workshop, seen as the founding year
1710 – Creates the “Daniel” watch
1988 – Girard-Perregaux becomes the owner of the brand
? – Sowind Group buys the brand (and the brand Girard-Perregaux)
2008 – Kering Group buys a 23% stake in Girard Perregaux
2011 – Kering Group becomes the owner by a 50.1% stake in Sowind Group
2012 – Relaunch of the brand
2022 – Kering Group sells 100% stake to management (for Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin, including the brand name Jeanrichard according to the Financial Times)
The full list of oldest watch brands in the world might interest you…