Audemars Piguet 3120 Instruction manual - page 5

tHE MANufActurE 

AudEMArS pIGuEt

The Vallée de Joux :  

cradle of The waTchmaker’s arT

in the heart of the swiss jura, around 50 kilometres 

north of geneva, nestles a landscape which has 

retained its natural charm to this day : the vallée 

de joux. around the mid-18th century, the harsh 

climate of this mountainous region and soil depletion 

drove the farming community settled there to seek 

other sources of income. with their high degree 

of manual dexterity, inexhaustible creativity and 

enormous determination, the inhabitants of the 

valley, known as combiers, were naturally drawn 

to watchmaking. 

due to their high quality, the movements they 

produced acquired great popularity with the geneva 

firms which used them to create complete watches. 

from 1740 onwards, watchmaking developed into 

the principal industry of the vallée de joux. this 

region was thus transformed, as an 1881 chronicle 

put it, “ into a land of milk and honey, in which 

poverty has rapidly disappeared ”.

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