The “Royal Manufacture” of Fernex watches

Established in Fernex in 1760, Voltaire then decided to extend the watchmaking craftsmanship to the detriment of Geneva by setting up a short-lived watch factory in the small town.

By Lionel Marquis, journalist

D'Alembert called him "Monsieur le multiform", and according to Isabelle Frank, "it is possible that Voltaire discovered his interest in watchmaking during his stay at the court of Frederick of Prussia - from 1750 to 1753 -, a great fan of watches and who owned a large collection of Neuchâtel clocks”. Voltaire, she explains, had already purchased several watches in the sixties and the inventory of his castle in Fernex (1) tells us that there were six clocks, including two in his room.

When Voltaire, persona non grata in Paris, decided to come and settle in Geneva in 1755, he was welcomed in the city of refuge with all the honors due to his name. However, Voltaire is a cumbersome character for the pastors who manage the public life of the city and if the latter cannot fail in its tradition of hospitality, they secretly hope that the owner of the “Délices” will keep quiet. But things will quickly deteriorate. First of all, there is the philosopher's interest in cabinotiers (2), whose level of education and taste for general ideas and political debates strike him, writes Estelle Fallet. Then, in 1757, an article on Geneva in the Encyclopédie – with which Voltaire will distance himself – criticizes the authorities and theatrical restrictions, which will greatly displease. In addition, Voltaire took an active part in the struggle between the Bourgeois and the Geneva natives for sixty years.

Geneva in the 18th century

Since the end of the 17th century and the arrival of the second wave of Huguenots driven out of France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), Genevan's power has been confiscated by a few families. Faced with them, the body of Bourgeois and Citizens became a minority in the 18th century. All enjoy civil and economic rights and hold political rights. We access the Bourgeoisie by acquisition, which is increasingly expensive. Below, there are the Natives, who are Genevans by birth, sons of French Huguenot emigrants who arrived after Saint-Barthélemy in 1572 but were deprived of all political rights and subject to numerous restrictions in their economic activity. They could also not be elected master jurors in corporations, exercise a liberal profession, or access a military rank. Nevertheless, they participated in most of the citizens' expenses (taxes and armed service). Only five Natives had the right annually to purchase the Bourgeoisie. Then come the Inhabitants, these foreigners integrated into the community and having obtained the right of establishment. The increase in immigration in the second half of the 18th century led to the birth of the Domiciliary category, requiring an annual or quarterly residence permit.

It was at the end of the 16th century that several Protestant watchmakers established themselves in Geneva. At the time of the Revocation, the mastery of watchmakers no longer admitted to its ranks except the Bourgeois and the Citizens. This defensive attitude was justified by the development of the watchmaking industry in certain regions around Geneva. This situation will benefit Voltaire, just as he will take advantage of the troubles of 1766 – the French blockade that closed Geneva watchmaking and its derivatives – to attract the best Geneva watchmakers to Fernex. Moreover, shortly before, Choiseul had tried, in vain, in 1769, to attract these artisans to Versoix (3) to establish a royal watchmaking factory there intended to defeat that of Geneva.

In the middle of the 18th century, 2/3 of the watchmakers and jewelers of Geneva – the Factory – were recruited from the Natives. On February 15, 1770, the Native revolt caused the deaths of three people and eight leaders of the movement were condemned. They first found refuge in Versoix, before heading towards Fernex after the dismissal of Choiseul on December 24, 1770. Also expatriated were those who had refused to take an oath of loyalty to Geneva.

Fernex and its surroundings at the end of the 18th century

Since the end of the 17th century, to make ends meet, some Gessian peasants manufactured watch blanks, which they sent to Geneva. Around 1740, several villages in the region such as Challex, Gex, and Thoiry had become important watchmaking centers, competing with Geneva. There, the government took retaliatory measures on several occasions, starting in 1745: it was now forbidden “to have any foreign watchmaking work worked on or purchased […] and to send any supplies into the surrounding area.”

When Voltaire arrived, Fernex had barely more than 150 inhabitants, “around forty unfortunate peasants covered with scabs and scrofula, like all those whose muscles have been destroyed by deep poverty” (4). It was a “dilapidated and filthy hamlet following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes” (I. Franck). When Voltaire arrived, Fernex had 41 fires (5). He built more than a hundred houses and financed the construction of a church, a school, a hospital, and a fountain. Two years after his death, Fernex had 184 households. In 1739, the town had a watchmaker: a certain Benoît Larchevesque.

Voltaire, who had taken an active part in the Natives' struggle, welcomed at Fernex, in February 1770, around thirty refugees – the watchmakers – with their families. Initially, he housed them in the outbuildings of his castle and with locals. He made them work in the theater room, an old converted barn: “I established in the hamlet of Ferney a small annex of your watch factories in your capital of Bourg-en-Bresse. This theater room that you know has been transformed into workshops. We melt gold, we polish cogs where verses were recited. » (6)

The “Royal Manufacture” of Fernex

As early as April 1770, Voltaire spoke of “forty workers employed in teaching Europe what time it is” (7). On the same date, he wrote: “We must remember that everyone wants to have a gold watch from Pequin to Martinique and that there are only three major manufacturers: London, Paris and Geneva. »

During 1776, the Manufacture had a maximum of “twelve hundred fathers of families” (8). The Natives, those who worked in Geneva, only produced pocket and collar watches. In 1771, four workshops assembled watches. During the period 1770-78, around sixty master watchmakers were established in Fernex, with an annual salary of 336 pounds, twenty percent more than that of a worker. To run the factory, the philosopher called on two entrepreneurs from Geneva: Dufour (9) and Céret (10), his brother-in-law. The manufacturer then delivers all varieties of watches, from the simplest to the most complicated. Five other workshops also work under the protection of the patriarch, who grants loans to newcomers. Taking advantage of his worldly and political relationships, in particular with the Duke of Choiseul, to whom Voltaire sent watches, he obtained that the products of his factories could arrive free of charge both in France and abroad, through the intermediary of the post office. This promised considerable savings. The fall of Choiseul had no consequences in this matter. But the watches had to be sold. Thanks to the French ambassadors who advertised for the patriarch of Fernex, Voltaire tried to conquer Spain or Turkey with his watches. It was a failure, the positions conquered by the Genevans proving impregnable. Watches were then offered to the court as early as 1770, then in 1771 and 1773. Without much result. Through Catherine II of Russia, he attempted the Chinese market, making the empress the factory's best customer.

Voltaire granted interest-free loans to watchmakers and provided them with raw materials, notably gold. He invested his immense fortune in the company and the factory catalog mentions a wide variety of watches: in gold, enameled, or set with precious stones, second-hand movements, and cylinder escapements. The ornamentation, carried out by enamel painters, focuses on landscapes and portraits. Fernex workshops reportedly produced 4,000 watches, produced by some 400 watchmakers for a turnover of 400,000 pounds. The Geneva Factory, with 5,000 watchmakers, manufactured 33,000 at the same time.

The end

From 1775, the problems began. Voltaire must negotiate with the various successors of Choiseul the contribution of artisans to the General Farm. Voltaire said he was caught “between the Te Deum and the De Profundis” (11). After initial success, the Ferneysian watchmakers were required to pay 30,000 pounds annually in compensation, a sum reduced to 6,000 pounds after negotiation, which Voltaire paid out of his pocket. In May 1776, Turgot was dismissed. His successors were not of much help to him. But the worst was to come with the arrival of Jacques Necker as director of the Treasury, on October 22, 1776: “This is a new danger for us… The interests of the colony of Ferney are said to be opposed to those of Geneva that Mr. Necker is obliged to support by his birth and by his position as resident. » (12)

In addition, the kingdom is now experiencing significant financial difficulties. Consequence: a significant drop in watch orders, making the repayment of life loans less and less certain. This situation leads the Natives to look towards Geneva where the spirit is at peace. Because, despite “the autonomy of Ferneysian watchmaking and the desire to compete with Geneva, […] many watchmakers were from Geneva and […] the watches they manufactured were in no way distinguishable from contemporary Geneva production”. The Geneva government, concerned with its interests, submitted an “act of pacification”, which was not promulgated until 1782, and which stipulated that all difference was abolished between the Natives and the Bourgeois. Disappointed, Voltaire wrote to Madame de Saint-Julien: “All the artists are leaving one after the other because Mr. Intendant has put them to work and forced labor... Five hundred thousand francs that the houses per The buildings I built had cost me five hundred thousand francs thrown into Lake Geneva. » (13) In 1771, Voltaire had thirty-two houses built, the following year, around fifty, and in 1775, a year after the death of Louis XV, eighteen. That's a total of around a hundred.

In February 1778, at the age of eighty-four, Voltaire abandoned the factory to gain acclaim in Paris, where he died on May 30. With his departure, the last Natives returned to Geneva. Among them, is Georges Auzière (14), the former leader of the banished people. It took him a long time to decide. Voltaire, to whom he had written to inform him that he was going to abandon everything, complained in a letter to Wagnière, his devoted secretary: “He will contribute to my ruin. All these people are foolish and unfair. Tell them, my dear friend, that I am a hundred times more useful to them in Paris than in Ferney. »