Last June, the Concepto Watch Factory manufacture celebrated a symbolic anniversary: twenty years of an entrepreneurial adventure that has become one of the finest success stories in contemporary Swiss watchmaking. Founded in 2006 by Valérien Jaquet, the company has gradually established itself as an essential partner for many watch houses thanks to a simple philosophy: to design, manufacture and perfect ever more ambitious movements while preserving a rare independence.
In La Chaux-de-Fonds, where the heart of the Swiss watch industry beats, this success is nonetheless no accident. It is the result of a vision, a family culture and a permanent pursuit of excellence.
On this page
- An adventure born from a passion for mechanics
- A manufacture conceived as a complete ecosystem
- Steady, controlled growth
- The tourbillon as a laboratory for innovation
- The chronograph, a second historic specialty
- A manufacture that inspires confidence
- When watchmaking meets exceptional automobiles
- People as the driving force of performance
- Twenty years of history… and a future already in motion
- Frequently asked questions
An adventure born from a passion for mechanics
When Valérien Jaquet founded Concepto on 27 March 2006, the company was then only a design workshop specialising in tourbillon movements. From the outset, its ambition went far beyond the mere creation of calibres.
Born into a family deeply rooted in the watchmaking tradition, he grew up alongside his father, Jean-Pierre Jaquet, a major figure of the Swiss industry and the founder of, among others, Jaquet-Baume and then Jaquet SA, which later became La Joux-Perret. More than a technical legacy, what was passed on to him was a genuine culture of entrepreneurship, rigour and loyalty.
Twenty years later, this culture remains at the heart of each of Concepto’s creations.
A manufacture conceived as a complete ecosystem
In two decades, Concepto has profoundly transformed its industrial model. The company has today become an integrated manufacture capable of mastering practically every stage of watch production. Research and development, design, bar turning, machining, decoration, assembly, adjustment, casing… close to thirty crafts now coexist within a single industrial group. This vertical integration is one of the pillars of its development. It allows the company not only to guarantee consistent quality but also to respond quickly to its partners’ most complex demands.
The manufacture is today able to produce individual components as well as complete regulating organs, modules, movements fully developed in-house, artistic-craft dials, high-quality cases and even fully finished watches.
Steady, controlled growth
The figures bear witness to this evolution.
In 2025, the Concepto group approached 60 million Swiss francs in turnover. Its workshops now produce more than 30,000 movements a year, including around 1,100 tourbillon movements. The workforce is following the same trajectory, with 183 employees compared with only 90 in 2012. The manufacture today counts some thirty watchmakers as well as six prototypists dedicated to developing future movements. Each year, close to a dozen new calibres thus come to life, ranging from three-hand movements to grand complications, by way of sophisticated chronographs, minute repeaters and even entirely novel mechanical architectures.
This capacity for permanent innovation is probably one of Concepto’s strongest signatures.
The tourbillon as a laboratory for innovation
From his very first works, Valérien Jaquet made the tourbillon a formidable field for technical expression. His very first movement immediately drew attention thanks to a spectacular architecture using a mainplate and bridges in transparent sapphire. Since then, Concepto has developed more than fifty tourbillon movements in every imaginable form. Flying, suspended and under-bridge tourbillons, with one, two, three or even four axes, multiple carriages, unprecedented rotation speeds, records for thinness… each new project becomes an opportunity to explore new technical avenues.
Among these achievements is a watch whose total thickness does not exceed 1.85 millimetres, demonstrating the manufacture’s ability to combine mechanical complexity with the pursuit of extreme thinness.
The chronograph, a second historic specialty
While the tourbillon has largely contributed to building Concepto’s reputation, the chronograph also holds a central place in its history. Here again, the family influence plays an essential role. The knowledge acquired around the development of complete or modular chronographs has enabled the manufacture to build recognised expertise in this complication, one of the most demanding in watchmaking.
Even today, this technical mastery feeds many developments carried out for partner brands.
A manufacture that inspires confidence
Over the years, close to a hundred watch houses have called on Concepto’s expertise. Some seek one-off expertise on a particular component. Others entrust the complete development of a movement, or even the full manufacture of a watch.
This diversity illustrates the flexibility of a structure capable of supporting confidential projects as well as large-scale industrial developments. Beyond technical skills, Valérien Jaquet also regularly stresses the importance of the human relationships that bind Concepto to its partners. In his view, the finest achievements always arise from a shared vision and mutual trust.
When watchmaking meets exceptional automobiles
One of the most spectacular demonstrations of this capacity for innovation even goes beyond the traditional bounds of watchmaking. To take part in developing the instrument cluster of the Bugatti Tourbillon, Concepto developed new skills in the field of very high-level embedded electronics.
This mechanical dashboard, a veritable animated work of art, transposes the codes of fine watchmaking into the automotive world with remarkable precision. This achievement earned Concepto the Bugatti Innovation and Value Engineering Award, recognising the manufacture’s ability to push back the frontiers of its expertise.
People as the driving force of performance
Behind the machines, the workshops and the movements, Concepto remains above all a deeply human adventure. During the twentieth-anniversary celebrations, Valérien Jaquet made a point of paying tribute to his father, recalling how much the values passed down over the years continue to inspire the company’s choices. This loyalty to the women and men who take part in its development appears as one of the guiding threads of its history.
A vision that no doubt explains the stability of its teams, the lasting trust of its partners and the consistency of its progress.
Twenty years of history… and a future already in motion
In just two decades, Concepto Watch Factory has become a fully integrated manufacture, capable of designing and producing some of the most ambitious movements in contemporary watchmaking.
Its development rests on a conviction that has remained intact since 2006: innovation is only worthwhile when it is accompanied by reliability, industrial mastery and a constant demand for excellence in the smallest details.
As the manufacture celebrates its twentieth anniversary, this philosophy continues to guide each of its creations. More than an anniversary, this milestone marks the beginning of a new chapter. A chapter that Concepto intends to write with the same curiosity, the same technical exigence and the same passion for mechanics that have driven it since its very first movement.
Frequently asked questions
Concepto Watch Factory was founded on 27 March 2006 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by Valérien Jaquet, son of Jean-Pierre Jaquet, a major figure of the Swiss watch industry. It began as a design workshop specialising in tourbillon movements.
Now a fully integrated manufacture, Concepto masters almost every stage of watchmaking — R&D, machining, decoration, assembly and casing. It makes individual components, complete regulating organs, modules, in-house movements, artistic dials, high-quality cases and fully finished watches, drawing on close to thirty different crafts.
Concepto’s workshops turn out more than 30,000 movements a year, including around 1,100 tourbillon movements. In 2025 the group approached 60 million Swiss francs in turnover, with 183 employees against just 90 in 2012.
The tourbillon is Concepto’s historic laboratory, with more than fifty movements developed — flying, suspended, single- and multi-axis — including an ultra-thin watch just 1.85 mm thick. The chronograph is its second historic specialty, an expertise inherited from the family and now central to many partner projects.
Concepto developed the mechanical instrument cluster of the Bugatti Tourbillon, mastering high-level embedded electronics in the process. This mechanical dashboard earned the manufacture the Bugatti Innovation and Value Engineering Award.
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