Founded in 1839, L’Epée 1839 is a clock manufacture in Delémont, in the Swiss Jura, and since 2014 it has engineered and built a series of clocks conceived by MB&F.
How it began
At the age of 41, Auguste L’Epée joined Pierre-Henri Paur from Geneva to found a manufacture in Saint Suzanne, in the Doubs department of France. It made music boxes and horological products. From 1850 it produced platform escapements for makers of alarm clocks and carriage clocks. Output rose over two decades to 200,000 platform escapements in 1889.
Gold awards followed at the World Fairs in Paris in 1889 and 1900. In 1975 new directors turned production towards luxury clocks and carriage clocks. A year later, L’Epée wall clocks were fitted to Concorde for its first commercial flights. The brand says they remain the only clocks ever fitted in supersonic aircraft used in civil aviation.
The idea
L’Epée 1839 describes itself as the only manufacture in Switzerland that specialises in high-end clocks. Its pieces are designed or co-designed, engineered and made in-house, from development to assembly. Designers, engineers, mechanics and watchmakers work together under one roof.
For its 175th anniversary in 2014, it launched the Creative Art line of horological sculptures. The first piece was Starfleet Machine, made with MB&F, and it began a long partnership. MB&F’s founder, Maximilian Büsser, developed that first concept with the ECAL design graduate Xin Wang. MB&F conceives each clock, and L’Epée 1839 engineers and crafts it. Chief executive Arnaud Nicolas says: “Like Max, I am a big sci-fi fan so when MB&F came to us with the design, we had to accept the challenge.”
The clocks
Starfleet Machine is a space station for the desk. Its double retrograde seconds take the form of turret-mounted laser cannons, which cross and fly apart every 20 seconds. Five barrels give 40 days of power. Every component except the 48 jewels was designed and made at L’Epée’s Swiss atelier.
Medusa, the tenth co-creation, is a jellyfish in hand-blown Murano glass that hangs from the ceiling or stands on a desk. L’Epée designed its movement from scratch, with one propeller-shaped part that winds it one way and sets it the other. Of the 40 glassblowing companies it approached, only one could make the dome.
Albatross, presented in 2024, is the 15th clock co-created with MB&F and, the brand says, the most ambitious. Designer Eric Meyer took the idea from the airship in Jules Verne’s novel Robur the Conqueror. It has 1,520 components and strikes the hours. On the hour, 16 pairs of propellers spring into action. Each of its five colours is limited to 8 pieces.
The house today
L’Epée 1839 is a brand of SWIZA SA, at Rue de Saint Maurice 1 in Delémont. Alongside the MB&F pieces it makes carriage clocks and contemporary clocks, with complications such as perpetual calendars, tourbillons and striking mechanisms. In 2023 its Time Fast II Chrome won the mechanical clocks category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.
The house that once supplied escapements to other clockmakers now builds space stations, jellyfish and airships. Each one still has to keep time.
At a glance
- Founded: 1839, in Saint Suzanne, France
- Founders: Auguste L’Epée with Pierre-Henri Paur
- Based in: Delémont, Switzerland
- Known for: high-end mechanical clocks; co-creations with MB&F since 2014
- Independent: no; a brand of SWIZA SA
Sources: L’Epée 1839’s own website (Home, History and Heritage, Our Values, Starfleet Machine, Medusa, Albatross, Arachnophobia).