Blancpain

Blancpain was founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in Villeret, Switzerland, in the Bernese Jura region. He established his first workshop on the upper floor of his house, beginning nearly three centuries of watchmaking tradition. The company remained under family control until 1932, when Frédéric-Emile Blancpain died and his daughter chose not to continue in the business. The firm was then acquired by employees Betty Fiechter and André Léal, who renamed it Rayville S.A. (a phonetic anagram of Villeret) as required by law. During the late 1950s, Blancpain joined SSIH (alongside Omega and Tissot) and reached peak production of 220,000 watches annually by 1971. However, the quartz crisis of the 1970s devastated the company. By 1980, the brand had been dissolved and absorbed by Omega. In 1983, the brand was revived when Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet purchased the dormant name from SSIH and relocated production to Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux, committing to produce only mechanical watches. The revival was remarkably successful. Blancpain introduced groundbreaking complications including the world's thinnest self-winding chronograph (1987) and the legendary 1735 Grande Complication (1991). In 1992, Swatch Group reacquired Blancpain for 60 million Swiss Francs. Under Marc Hayek's leadership since 2002, Blancpain continues as a top-tier manufacture, producing fewer than 30 watches per day, each crafted by a single watchmaker.