AT THE HEART OF WATCH CRAFTSMANSHIP

Known for its excellent craftsmanship, the French art of watchmaking has a longstanding tradition of excellence. It goes back more than six hundred years but it is in the 18th century that it takes off in Franche-Comté, the French region in the Jura mountains just a few miles away from Switzerland.

Watchmaking was first and foremost a meticulous craft practiced in winter as a supplementary activity by farmers living in the Jura mountains. Today the watchmaking craftsmanship is preserved by historical Franche-Comté brands like YEMA and the recurrent exchanges between skilled watch experts across the border.

YEMA's workshops are based in the small town of Morteau (Franche-Comté), surrounded by extensive pine forests in a secluded valley in the Jura mountains. YEMA is run by a third generation watchmakers‘ family of Morteau with a small scale team averaging +30 years of service. Today, YEMA and other local watchmakers are the worthy heirs of a long watchmaking tradition that goes back centuries.

All these historical and geographical elements have enabled the French Watchmaker YEMA to design its own In-house mechanical movement.

“In my childhood, the Morteau valley was the cradle of French watchmaking. Each small village was crowded with family businesses dedicated to horology and watchmaking. YEMA was one of the most renowned local watch brands and the leading French watch exporter at that time. I always had in mind the idea of designing a quality French movement at an affordable price as we used to do in the past. So I was very honored to work on the development of YEMA's in-house Calibers by leading its design, prototyping and assembling.”


Jean-Paul Boillot 

A DYNAMIC REGIONAL WATCHMAKING ECOSYSTEM

The French and Swiss watchmaking regions feed into each other in a synergetic way in terms of expertise and talent. 15,000 people from Morteau’s region work daily for neighbouring Swiss manufacturers while another 3,000 are employed by private label French watchmakers based between Morteau and Besançon.

YEMA actively participates in this regional watchmaking ecosystem by partnering with Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau, which currently has more than 1,200 students. For more than 30 years, YEMA trains a dozen of apprentice watchmakers yearly through well-structured internships led by our Master Watchmaker, Jean-Paul Boillot.

French schools play an important role in the regional watchmaking ecosystem: Most alumni of Lycée Edgar Faure de Morteau work for Swiss manufactures, while 80% of Swiss watchmaking Managers are trained by the School of microtechnical engineers in Besançon (ENSMM).

Many French watchmakers decide to return to the French side of the valley after a few years in Switzerland, so as to join French watchmaking brands such as YEMA. This is the case of many of our watchmakers including Nicolas Bailly, our new Quality Assurance and Technical Manager who recently joined us after a previous working experience in Switzerland.

YEMA also works with Morteau’s town hall on projects aiming at further developing the watchmaking activity in the region, including a watchmaking start-ups incubator that is in the works.

Design, prototyping, assembly and maintenance of our In-house Calibers are manually carried out with precision in our workshops in Morteau by highly experienced traditional French watchmakers averaging 30+ years of service.