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Joël Pynson
April 2025
1. Charles-Henri Meylan
Charles-Henri Meylan was an exceptional watchmaker. Born in Le Sentier, in the Vallée de Joux, in 1842, he soon showed a particular talent for watchmaking [1]. He trained in London with Adolphe Nicole, who produced the first modern chronographs, and then in the Vallée de Joux, where he mastered complicated timepieces, before leaving for the USA in 1871.
In the USA, he worked with Mathez & Co. in New York, supplying the great American houses, such as Tiffany, with fine Vallée de Joux watches. He also registered numerous patents on chronograph improvements and rattrapantes [2].
He moved back to Switzerland, to Le Brassus, in 1888. He continued to produce complicated watches, mainly for the United States.
In 1904, he founded The C. H. Meylan Watch Co, in Le Brassus, in which talented watchmakers such as Jules-Henri Meylan, Léon Audemars, Henri and Albert Piguet, and merchant Francis Massy [3] were also partners.
Charles Henri Meylan died in 1916, but was succeeded by his associates.
2. C. H. Meylan Watch Co.
In 1920, with watchmakers Jean Piguet and Léon Audemars at the helm and Émile Sémon in charge of sales, the company opened a branch in Geneva on rue du Mont-Blanc [4].
This was certainly a move to sell watches under the Meylan name, and to be less dependent on sales to other prestigious houses.
1921
1927
Production is aimed at a wealthy clientele: precious metal watches, complicated watches, jewelry, etc.
The company's organization is typical of that of small manufacturers in the Vallée de Joux [5]. Here, there are no machines lined up in a forest of pulleys on the ceiling, and no workers doing repetitive tasks. Each watchmaker takes charge of his own movement, fine-tuning it until it's perfect and chronometrically accurate.
1926
In 1928, Henri Piguet and Léon Audemars left the company. Jean Piguet and Émile Sémon ran the company alone [6].
Despite the difficult times of the 1930s, the Meylan Watch Co. continued to produce exceptional watches, adding superb jumping-hour watches to its collections.
1932
1938
Émile Sémon died in 1933. Adolphe Meylan, William Sémon and Albert Audemars joined the company in the second generation [7].
Finally, in 1947, Baume & Mercier acquired a stake in the company, which was finally absorbed in 1952 [8].
[1] Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie, 1916, 5 pp. 142-145
[2] For example US 151 899 and US 383 749 patents. Charles-Henri Meylan could not yet register a patent in Switzerland, as the patent system was not introduced until 1888.
[3] FOSC 1904
[4] FOSC 1920
[5] Revue Internationale de l'Horlogerie, 1926, 24, pp. 369-376
[6] FOSC 1928
[7] FOSC 1934
[8] FOSC 1947 and 1952
The archives of Fédération Horlogère, Davoine and l'Impartial are available online at www.doc.rero.ch
The archives of Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie, Europa Star, Revue Internationale d'Horlogerie and Suisse Horlogère are available at The Watch Library
The FOSC (Feuille Officielle Suisse du Commerce) is available on E-periodica
Notes :
About Time To Tell: Time To Tell has one of the largest private digitized databases on the history of Swiss watchmaking, with over 2.3 TB of data on more than 1,000 Swiss watch manufacturers. This database has been built up over a period of some thirty years, and continues to be fed with around 50 to 100 GB of data every year. The database is made up of old documents, mainly Swiss trade journals, dating from the late 19th to the late 20th century. Most of these documents are not available on the Internet. Historical articles published on the time2tell.com website always cite the sources used.
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