Jean-François Bautte was born March 22, 1772 in Geneva. His parents were workers of modest means who died when Jean-François was still a young boy. Apprenticed at the age of twelve, he learned engraving, watchmaking, jewellery-making and goldsmithing, putting his newly acquired skills to work in the first piece of his own making, aged nineteen. He set up in business in Geneva, first with Jacques-Dauphin Moulinié and later joined by Jean-Gabriel Moyer, selling elegant watches and refined jewellery. But Jean-François Bautte had his own ideas about where his future lay and opened the most integrated watchmaking factory of its day, on Rue du Rhône, where he employed as many as three hundred specialised workers to manufacture watch movements, cases, dials, jewellery, automata and musical boxes. Most of all, Bautte was fascinated by the mechanical marvels inside the richly ornamented watches whose form imitated musical instruments, flowers or butterflies. One of the watches to come out of his manufacture was mounted in the grip of a gold and enamelled pistol that sprayed perfume.
Jean-François Bautte
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Jean-François Bautte has been the founder, in Geneva, of the most complete factory at the time (300 workers): production of movements, watchcases, dials, jewellery and automatons. He was also one of the first to make extra-flat watches.
Some of the first extra-thin watches were made by Bautte, who became a specialist in these slim timepieces. With so many creations and innovations to his credit, Jean-François Bautte extended his horizons and opened shops in Paris and Florence. Products by Bautte were sold as far away as Turkey, India and China. His name was mentioned in works by Alexandre Dumas, Honoré de Balzac and John Ruskin, while his clientele of wealthy and esteemed patrons included Queen Victoria, who in the first years of her reign visited the factory in Geneva. On Bautte’s death in 1837, the business passed into the hands of his son Jacques Bautte (1806-1885) and son-in-law Jean-Samuel Rossel (1799-1881), who in turn were succeeded by his grandson Jacques Rossel (1824-1896).
1804
Establishment of Moulinié, Bautte & Cie, purveyors of watches and jewellery.
c. 1815
Opened a manufacture in Geneva employing 300 workers.
1906
Bautte was taken over and merged with Girard-Perregaux.