Maison Horlogère Suisse · La Chaux‑de‑Fonds · Genève
A Swiss watchmaking house founded in La Chaux‑de‑Fonds and at work in Geneva, whose timepieces have passed from the bench into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Patek Philippe Museum and the Musée international d’horlogerie.
Maison Courvoisier · La Chaux‑de‑Fonds · Est. 1787
Maison Courvoisier has maintained a continuous presence since 1787.
Two hundred and thirty‑nine years of Swiss watchmaking, from the high valleys of Neuchâtel to the ateliers of Geneva — royal commissions, patents adopted across the industry, and pieces kept by the world’s great museums.
J. Robert & Fils, Courvoisier & Cie · La Chaux‑de‑Fonds
The flattest watch in the world, for the King of Prussia
Mobilis — the tourbillon seen through the dial
New York · London · Genève · La Chaux‑de‑Fonds · Istanbul · Jerusalem · Le Locle
La Maison
The house takes its name from Louis Courvoisier, who in 1781 became the principal associate of Josué Robert’s workshop in La Chaux‑de‑Fonds — a workshop that had held the watchmaker’s patent of the King of Prussia, sovereign of Neuchâtel, since 1725.
The notarial deeds of 1784 and 1788 record the firm as J. Robert & Fils, Courvoisier & Cie. From 1787, the year the Maison keeps as its own, the Courvoisier signature has been present on Swiss timepieces.
Under the names Robert & Courvoisier and, from 1811, Courvoisier & Cie — with houses in La Chaux‑de‑Fonds, Genève and Paris — the Maison made the enamelled and automaton watches that museums keep today, and pieces for the courts of Prussia, Russia, Portugal, the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire and the House of Savoy. In 1842 the town of La Chaux‑de‑Fonds commissioned from it the flattest watch in the world, a gift to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
The family name stood at the head of the house into the twenty‑first century. Its seat is now Genève, where dials are painted, fired and engraved by hand; part of the work is still carried out in La Chaux‑de‑Fonds.
Courts for which the Maison Courvoisier made pieces.
Watchmaker’s patent of the King of Prussia, La Chaux‑de‑Fonds, 1725 — the royal foundation of the house. After his son’s death his daughter‑in‑law Charlotte Robert managed the firm: a woman at the head of an eighteenth‑century enterprise.
Principal associate of the Robert workshop from 1781; J. Robert & Fils, Courvoisier & Cie, 1787. His marriage to Julie Houriet joined the house to Jacques‑Frédéric Houriet, the father of Swiss chronometry.
Wife of Louis Courvoisier and daughter of Jacques‑Frédéric Houriet of Le Locle, the father of Swiss chronometry. Through her, the house was joined to the Houriet workshop and to the science of precision timekeeping.
From 1842 the brothers’ house made the celebrated pieces of the nineteenth century — the Prussia commission, the Ottoman portrait watches, the enamel of the Second Empire — and registered the patents and marks of the twentieth.
Fritz took the management of the family house in 1825 and founded his own enterprise in the 1830s. A tireless traveller, he studied the watchmaking of France, Italy, Portugal and Russia and opened trade with Egypt and Turkey; his journeys to Russia in the 1830s are recorded with the names of the Maison’s correspondents in St Petersburg and Moscow, Rosenstrauch and Cattoire among them.
On 1 March 1848 he led the republican column from La Chaux‑de‑Fonds to the Castle of Neuchâtel, took it, and ended Prussian rule over the canton. He sat in the Grand Conseil until his death and represented the canton in the Conseil national. In 1851 he was appointed commissioner for the Great Exhibition of London.
The town honoured him in permanence: he is named on the Monument de la République before the Hôtel de Ville, and the street of the first manufacture carries his name. In April 2023 a ceremony in his honour was held at the Castle of Neuchâtel, attended by descendants of the family.
Inscribed by UNESCO as a town planned around watchmaking, La Chaux‑de‑Fonds is the manufacturing heart of Swiss horology. The Maison’s ateliers stood here for two centuries — rue du Pont 13 and rue des Terreaux 33 in the twentieth century, both inspected and authorised under federal factory law — and the Musée international d’horlogerie keeps thirteen Courvoisier pieces in the founding city.
Under Louis Courvoisier the house worked from La Chaux‑de‑Fonds, Genève and Paris; the enamel cases of the Ottoman portrait watches were made in Genève; by 1893 the Versoix factory of Courvoisier & Co., Genève, was honoured as Commandeur of the Order of Christ of Portugal. Today the Maison’s dials are painted, fired and engraved in Genève — the city of the Patek Philippe Museum that collects Courvoisier, and of the Musée d’art et d’histoire that preserves it.
A watch from this house was never meant to be sold twice. It was meant to be kept, and then handed on.The Maison
Métiers d’Art
The earliest masterpieces of the house were painted in enamel and fired in the kiln, where a single error meant total loss. That tradition is the Maison’s first work today: one miniature painting, fired in grand‑feu enamel on a 40 mm dial, made for one collector.
A pair of kingfishers over the river, and the courtship gift of a fish. Every Métiers d’Art painting is commissioned from a living painter before it is entrusted to a Geneva enamel atelier for firing. The case is engraved by hand to continue the world of the dial.
The collector receives, with the watch, the original painting, the test‑firing plate and a letter from the artistic direction — a Commission Dossier that establishes the piece’s authorship for good. No subject is repeated. No piece is repeated.
Further subjects are announced when they are ready, and not before.
No piece is offered for sale on this page or elsewhere. Each is allocated to one collector after a conversation with the Maison.
The original painting and its Commission Dossier accompany the watch. The subject will not be painted again.
Production is limited to a handful of pieces a year. Requests are reviewed individually.
Les Collections
Beyond the Métiers d’Art, four signatures of the Maison are at the bench, each drawn from its own patent and its own registered mark. None is announced with a date. Each will be introduced when it is ready, in the order below.
Paul Loichot’s construction for Courvoisier Frères inverts the tourbillon: the carriage turns in plain view beneath the small dial, in an inverted 19‑ligne calibre. The 1905 advertising called it a tourbillon for everyone — the first made commercially accessible beyond a handful of chronometers. The trade mark MOBILIS was registered on 4 July 1905. Examples are kept by the British Museum and pass through Christie’s and Antiquorum in Geneva.
Sources · Bureau fédéral de la propriété intellectuelle, brevets N° 30754 (1904) et 30754/568 (1905) · Archives de l’horlogerie, marques de fabrique, vol. V
The hour appears in an aperture at twelve and changes in an instant; the minute hand sweeps an arc from seven to five and flies back. The mechanism was patented on 5 May 1903 by Gabriel López Mántaras of Saragossa and made under licence by Courvoisier Frères, who registered MODERNISTA on 26 December 1903 and presented the watch in the Almanach de l’horlogerie of 1905. Many dials were made for Cigarrillos Excelsior of Buenos Aires.
Sources · Brevet N° 27838 (1903) et addition /538 (1905) · Marque N° 16 713 · Almanach de l’horlogerie 1905, pp. 72–73
At the turn of the century Courvoisier Frères signed a family of watches for Spain, Portugal and South America, registering in 1904 the marks Gentry, Aladin, Caballero, Capitán, Gobernador and Sembrador beside the eagle. The Maison’s Madrid branch followed in 1910.
Sources · Archives de l’horlogerie, marques N° 17 723 – 17 752, September – October 1904 · La Suisse libérale, 7 January 1910
On 11 September 1914 L. Courvoisier & Cie, successors to Courvoisier Frères, patented a waterproof watch case; the 10½‑ligne MADIX movement followed, registered as a mark in 1919 and advertised for its solidity and the simplicity of its winding and setting — the officer’s wristwatch of the Maison.
Sources · Brevet principal N° 69202, 11 septembre 1914 · GB 1177/1915 · Revue internationale de l’horlogerie, 1913 · Inventions‑Revue, 1910
Métiers d’Art, Mobilis, Modernista, El Aguila and Madix are registered marks of the Maison for timepieces. New work is announced when it is ready, and not before; introductions are made by private appointment in Genève.
Pièces maîtresses
Objects that move between horology and enchantment: the documented record — museum catalogues, patent registers and the great auction rooms — describes a house that held records, opened mechanisms to a wider world, and painted empires in enamel.
The signature through the twentieth century
Provenance
A Maison is judged by where its pieces end up. These are the institutions that keep Courvoisier timepieces in their permanent collections, with the inventory numbers under which they are catalogued.
“Rosace bleue et noire” — pocket watch, La Chaux‑de‑Fonds, c. 1810; movement by Henri‑Louis Courvoisier.
Vitrine 135, objet 2 · photographed May 2026
Thirteen pieces, among them the silver watch with a gold figure that points the hour — Robert & Courvoisier, Genève N° 50272, c. 1790 — and the dance‑card watch repatriated with State funds in 2019.
Inv. I‑159 · Inv. IV‑109
Repeating watch, Courvoisier. Bequest of George A. Hearn, 1917.
Accession 17.101.48
Gold cylinder clock‑watch, 1810–20, quarter‑striking and playing two tunes; a Mobilis tourbillon of 1905. The museum records the firm as active from 1770 into the 1930s.
1958,1201.1123 and others
Brass, enamel, steel. Case and movement engraved “Frédéric Courvoisier, Chaux‑de‑Fonds”; the two small dials give the date and the alarm.
MIH inv. IV‑109
Gilt bronze, the dial signed by the Maison; in the horological collections of La Chaux‑de‑Fonds.
Musée international d’horlogerie
The portrait watches of Sultan Abdülmecid I, signed Auguste Courvoisier & Cie. Courvoisier Frères and Courvoisier & Cie of La Chaux‑de‑Fonds supplied the Ottoman Palace; “Courvoisier à Paris” signatures date from the 1780s.
TSM 53/184 · EW 5‑70 · Topkapı Sarayı’nı Anlatmak, 2018, p. 306
Further pieces by the Maison are kept in the Neuchâtel mountains, cradle of the family, and in Genève.
Le Locle · GenèveCorrespondents
The Prussian connection began with the royal patent of 1725 and was renewed with the flattest watch of 1842. The Ottoman connection produced the Sultan’s portrait watches and the enamel of the Second Empire. Fritz Courvoisier’s journeys of the 1830s are recorded with the Maison’s correspondents among the merchant houses of St Petersburg and Moscow; the marks of 1904 and the Madrid branch of 1910 carried the signature to Spain, Portugal and South America.
Archives
The Maison’s history is written in registers, patents and gazettes rather than in brochures. A selection from the archive, reproduced as found.
Chronologie
Josué Robert receives the watchmaker’s patent of the King of Prussia, sovereign of Neuchâtel. La Chaux‑de‑Fonds.
Louis Courvoisier becomes principal associate of the Robert workshop.
Notarial deed: “Robert J. et fils, Courvoisier et Cie” — Répertoire raisonné des horlogers neuchâtelois, vol. III.
J. Robert & Fils, Courvoisier & Cie. The founding year of the Maison.
Silver watch with a gold figure, signed Genève N° 50272 — MIH inv. I‑159.
Robert & Courvoisier: the era of the enamel automaton watches.
Courvoisier & Cie — La Chaux‑de‑Fonds, Genève, Paris.
The flattest watch in the world, for Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Courvoisier Frères.
1 March — Fritz Courvoisier leads the republican column to the Castle of Neuchâtel.
Portrait watches for Sultan Abdülmecid I — Topkapı TSM 53/184.
Fritz Courvoisier, commissioner at the Great Exhibition, London.
Patent CH 5038, pendant winding.
Courvoisier & Co., Genève–Versoix, honoured as Commandeur of the Order of Christ of Portugal.
Patent CH 15360, winding and time-setting mechanism — Courvoisier Frères.
Modernista — jumping hour, retrograde minutes. Patent CH 27838 · mark N° 16 713.
Mobilis — the tourbillon seen through the dial. Patent CH 30754 · mark N° 19 062.
Patent CH 37771, tourbillon visible through the back.
L. Courvoisier & Cie succeeds Courvoisier Frères; a branch in Madrid.
Patent CH 69202, waterproof wristwatch case. The ateliers de réglage at rue du Pont 13 authorised.
The MADIX mark — la montre à dix.
The atelier de terminage at rue des Terreaux 33 authorised.
Courvoisier et Cie, La Chaux‑de‑Fonds — Olivier Courvoisier administrateur, 1987 to 2016.
Swiss mark COURVOISIER 1787, Class 14.
The Musée international d’horlogerie repatriates the Fritz Courvoisier dance‑card watch with State funds.
Ceremony honouring Fritz Courvoisier at the Castle of Neuchâtel, attended by descendants of the family.
Genève. The first Métiers d’Art dial, Les Jours d’Alcyone, enters production.
Continuity
From the royal patent of 1725 through the factory authorisations of the twentieth century and the trademark registrations of the modern era, the name has remained in the Swiss registers without interruption. The family name stood at the head of the house into the twenty‑first century.
Arrêté of the Conseil d’État of Neuchâtel, 21 April 1914: the regulating workshops of L. Courvoisier & Cie, rue du Pont 13, La Chaux‑de‑Fonds, inspected and authorised under federal factory law.
Decision of the Département de l’Intérieur, 8 April 1921: the finishing workshop of the Manufacture de montres L. Courvoisier & Cie, rue des Terreaux 33, communicated to the Federal Factory Inspector.
Swiss word mark N° 417148, Nice Class 14, filed 3 January 1995 and maintained in force through successive prolongations. The Courvoisier marks for timepieces are held today by the Maison in its principal jurisdictions.
“A house with a continuous presence since 1787 asks for one thing of those who hold it: stewardship.”
Olivier Courvoisier, a member of the founding family, served as administrateur of the house in La Chaux‑de‑Fonds from 1987 to 2016. The Maison continues today under new stewardship, its ateliers in Genève and La Chaux‑de‑Fonds drawing on an archive of documented significance and on the technical and aesthetic standards that earned institutional recognition across more than two centuries.
Silence, here, is not absence. It is the interval before precision.
Une conversation
The Maison does not sell from this page. Each piece is allocated to one collector after a conversation — in Genève, or wherever you are. Requests are read personally and answered within a few days. Priority is given to collectors whose interest aligns with the Maison’s work.
41A route des Jeunes
1227 Genève, Switzerland · visits by appointment
The founding city, canton of Neuchâtel · ateliers by appointment
Restoration and servicing of Courvoisier timepieces from the archive; informed opinions on attribution on the submission of photographs of the case, caseback and cuvette. Press and institutions: by request.
