t’s April and despite the onset of spring, a flurry of snow begins to fall as we walk towards the Purtec building in Vallorbe, in the Swiss canton of Vaud, on our way to meet Eric Coudray. The image is picture-book perfect, the muffled quiet of the snow mirroring the silence and stillness of the watchmakers at work inside.

“I can’t stand watches!” By way of a greeting, Eric Coudray’s opener is enough to throw anyone out of kilter – he is, after all, the winner of the 2012 Prix Gaïa – but we’re unfazed, having met Coudray on numerous occasions in the 1990s at Jaeger-LeCoultre. “What I do love,” he continues, “are mechanisms. Any mechanism, whether it’s a power station, a bike, a car, a plane, even a loom. There’s an incredible loom at the lace museum in Calais that’s over ten metres long. I even live in a converted windmill.”

Eric Coudray in Foncine-le-Haut, in the Swiss Jura. A movement constructor, he describes himself as someone who “arranges mechanical components in an unconventional way.”

©Aurélien Bergot

Jaeger-LeCoultre, the umbilical cord

Reminiscing with Eric Coudray inevitably takes us to Vallée de Joux, where he joined Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre on Tuesday January 3, 1989. He stayed for almost two decades, forging himself as a watchmaker. He spent the 1990s in the homologation department, under Gabriel Locatelli, where he “destroyed watches.” More exactly, he was part of a small team with the huge responsibility of ensuring that prototypes for future Jaeger-LeCoultre movements were reliable prior to homologation.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Gyrotourbillon I (2004). For a long time the most complete complication from Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre, the watch combines a spherical dual-axis tourbillon with a retrograde perpetual calendar and an equation of time.

A vital link between the movement constructors and the manufacturing team, he recalls making “many trips to the factory when alterations had to be made at the machining stage to problematic components, for example the central axle of Calibre 854 [the first version of the Reverso Duoface].” Initially bemused, Eric Coudray’s colleagues, past and present, would come to appreciate this aptitude and enthusiasm for the manufacturing process. “I love machining,” he says. “I’m happy to modify certain components at the machining phase if it smooths the process. My colleagues in the workshop are generally open to suggestions. I respect them and help them.”

“My workshop”

A defining moment in Eric Coudray’s career came when Jaeger-LeCoultre managing director Henry-John Belmont asked him to set up a workshop that would focus entirely on building new movements. This was in the early 2000s. Tongue-in-cheek, he called it “mon atelier” (my workshop) so that “visitors would feel at home.” He picked a small team and got down to business. The other constructors saw the workshop as “an exogenous unit”. Coudray felt misunderstood and would go on to prove to others, as well as himself, that Belmont’s decision would have lasting repercussions for the brand.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 (2008). Successor to the Master Gyrotourbillon 1, also produced as a 75-piece limited edition, executed in platinum.

Paradoxically, his ascent began with the Atmos, launched in 1927. Sales of the “clock that lives on air” had faltered but the Atmos Régulateur and Atmos Mystérieuse, the two models which Eric Coudray developed in just two years, commanded unprecedented prices. Both mechanisms demonstrate his immense respect for and profound knowledge of watchmaking as practiced by previous generations, including his father and grandfather who were also watchmakers.

The birth of the Gyrotourbillon, a dual-axis spherion

Ultimately, a career, a name, recognition come down to the smallest of things, as Eric Coudray had yet to discover one autumn morning in 2001, when Stéphane Belmont, then product and development director at Jaeger-LeCoultre, invited him for breakfast at Hôtel Bellevue Le Rocheray. Joining them were the brand’s artistic director, Janek Deleskievicz, and constructor Philippe Vandel.

Eric Coudray remembers the conversation: “Stéphane Belmont suggested working on a ‘different’ tourbillon. I told him I already had an idea for something but the case would have to be really large, too large. He told me to go ahead and they would ‘build a case around it’. It took me less than a month to design.”

Indeed, a new type of tourbillon was already taking shape in Eric Coudray’s mind…

Connoisseurs perhaps remember the dual-axis tourbillon that English watchmaker Anthony G. Randall patented in 1979. Fitted in a carriage clock by Richard Good, the cage rotates simultaneously on two planes: around its axis and perpendicular to the balance.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Gyrotourbillon 1 (2004). Jaeger-LeCoultre released this model just ahead of other multi-axis tourbillons, not least by Jean-Pierre Golay, at that time employed by Franck Muller in Genthod, and by independent watchmaker Thomas Prescher.

For the Gyrotourbillon, Eric Coudray not only developed a spherical tourbillon for a wristwatch; he “positioned the balance wheel perpendicular to the tourbillon cage.” Another first.

Convinced that “what interested (him) wouldn’t interest anyone else,” he had kept his idea to himself until he sat down for breakfast with Stéphane Belmont.

But the hardest part was yet to come: how to convince management and foremost Jérôme Lambert, the Manufacture’s CEO. “I remembered the flipbooks I loved when I was a kid and made one,” says Coudray. “I printed dozens of A3 sheets showing this new spherical tourbillon in various positions. I even coloured in the parts, using the same colour for the same component on each page. It worked.”

A long (and winding) road

There was no time to waste. The competition never sleeps and rumours abounded that other multi-axis tourbillons were on the verge of completion, including one by Jean-Pierre Golay for Frank Muller in Genthod and another by independent watchmaker Thomas Prescher.

Jérôme Lambert became personally involved, already sensing the importance this unprecedented project would have for Jaeger-LeCoultre. He would later say that “the tourbillon gave the entire manufacture wings and cemented team spirit.”

The development, prototyping and homologation of Calibre 177 came to fruition just weeks before the official unveiling at the 2004 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva. The Gyrotourbillon was born and nothing would ever be quite the same for Eric Coudray or for Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre.

2012, the Prix Gaïa brings recognition

“I often go to the Prix Gaïa ceremony. It’s a chance to catch up with my old teacher, Jean-Michel Piguet, and see old schoolfriends. When Ludwig Oechslin [former curator of Musée International d’Horlogerie, the institution behind the awards] called to tell me I’d won, I thought it was my friend Paul Clementi joking around. I didn’t take him seriously. Not for a minute did I imagine my career was deserving of such a prize.”

He doesn’t know who nominated him for this distinction, although the chairman of the jury – Henry-John Belmont, ex-CEO of Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre – must have weighed in the decision.

Paul Clementi made the traditional laudation, following which Coudray gave his acceptance speech, declaring, in a mix of provocation and sincerity, “I don’t want this award. It’s for old people and I’m not old yet!”

The godfather of multi-axis tourbillons

A sense of reserve, or suppressed indignation, prevents him from discussing the eight years he spent at Cabestan, despite being financially drained by the experience: “I lost hundreds of hours which should have been converted into shares, which they refused to give me when I left.”

HYT Conical Tourbillon Black Eklipse (2023). The conical tourbillon completes one rotation every 30 seconds. It is inspired by German watchmaker Walter Prendel’s 1928 tourbillon, also with an inclined balance.

For TEC Ebauches, he was the constructor which the company (owned by Arnaud Faivre) had been waiting for, to consolidate its new movement design division, Purtec [read our article here]. His sketch of an “embryonic” spherion for Purnell sparked a series of projects in quick succession: the MB&F Legacy Machine Thunderdome for his old colleague at Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre, Max Büsser, in collaboration with watchmaker Kari Voutilainen; the Purnell Escapa Primo and the HYT Conical Tourbillon Black Eklipse.

MB&F Legacy Machine Thunderdome (2019). The first collaboration between watchmakers Eric Coudray and Kari Voutilainen, the cages of the TriAx tourbillon rotate on three axes at a dizzying speed of 8, 12 and 20 seconds.

Eric Coudray is in favour of a specific terminology for the various multi-axis tourbillons on the market. He suggests “X-illon” - X being the geometric form made by the balance staff as it rotates and “illon” (or “ion”) in reference to the tourbillon.

A spherical tourbillon (such as the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon 1 from 2004) thus becomes a spherion while a conical tourbillon becomes a conillon.

Independent through and through

Still with the grin of a little boy up to no good, Eric Coudray remains convinced his ideas “don’t interest anyone” although he has become “more self-assured with age.” The watchmaker - “watch movement designer” - could just as easily have restored vintage cars. “There was an old Panhard gathering rust behind my dad’s first watch shop in Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine. When I passed my driving test at 18, I inherited it. One of dad’s friends was a mechanic and he helped me get it back on the road.”

Purnell Escape Primo - 18K Rose Gold Rainbow (2022) @WatchGK. This “spherion” – a spherical multi-axis tourbillon – is set with precious stones. The movement was designed in collaboration with watchmaker Eric Coudray.

Fate, but most of all his encounter with three generations of Belmonts, decided otherwise. First Henry-Louis Belmont, founder of Yema, who got him into technical college in Besançon. The unruly fifteen-year-old left Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine and his family, much like a young man would once have taken the cloth, but to study watchmaking. Then Henry-John Belmont, who hired him at an ailing Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre and gave him constant support, going as far as to close his eyes to this frankly temperamental talent. Thirdly, Stéphane Belmont who, by challenging him to invent a “different” tourbillon, put his foot on the ladder.

HYT Conical Tourbillon Panda (2024). The third tourbillon to come out of the collaboration between Neuchâtel-based HYT and watchmaker Eric Coudray of Purtec. Part of the 533-component 701TC calibre, three white agates rotate at different speeds around the central multi-axis tourbillon. This white-on-black effect is a metaphor for the Panda aesthetic.

Independent through and through, Eric Coudray doesn’t consider himself to be “a creator or an inventor,” instead describing himself as someone who “arranges mechanical components in an unconventional way.” Even more surprising is his opinion – “It’s almost embarrassing” - of the twenty-some patents that bear his name [see below], although he admits that “I built my career on the Gyrotourbillon and it’s thanks to it that I’m a well-known name in watchmaking. People respect me and I’ve never had to send a CV.”

Imposter syndrome, a rebel without a cause, the inventor of the Gyrotourbillon is a complex and endearing personality. For the watch industry, he is a revolutionary…

BIOGRAPHY

1965 Born Wednesday February 17 in Tours, France.

1980-1982 Jules Haag technical college in Besançon, France.

1982-1984 Technicum Neuchâtelois in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Certificat Fédéral de Capacité in watchmaking/watch repair.

1984-1986 Musée International d’Horlogerie. Diploma in antique clock and watch restoration.

1986-1987 Repair workshop in Versailles, France.

1987-1988 Compulsory military service (10 months) at Musée de l’Air in Le Bourget, France.

1989-2008 Developments for Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre (Le Sentier): Atmos Régulateur (2002); Atmos Mystérieuse (2003), one-off piece in gold and onyx; Master Gyrotourbillon (2004); Reverso Gyrotourbillon (2007).

2008-2016 Cabestan. Design Prize at the Geneva Time Exhibition.

2012 Prix Gaïa in the Craftsmanship and Creation category, alongside Franco Cologni (Entrepreneurship) and Francesco Garufo (History and Research).

2016 ITEC Group (Purtec and TEC Ebauches). Has built and developed several spherions including Legacy Machine Thunderdome (MB&F), Escape II (Purnell) and Conical Tourbillon Panda (HYT).

MAIN PATENTS

1999 USD443525S1 Eric Coudray Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre SA: «Clock»

2002 CH694598A5 Eric Coudray Richemont Int SA: «Mouvement d’horlogerie comportant un mécanisme à tourbillon»

2002 CH694599A5 Eric Coudray Richemont Int SA: «Mécanisme à tourbillon»

2004 CH698141B1 Eric Coudray Richemont Int SA: «Mouvement d’horlogerie mécanique»

2018 EP3671363A1 Eric Coudray TEC Ebauches SA: «Mouvement d’horlogerie et pièce d’horlogerie comportant un tel mouvement»

2021 EP4113215A1 Eric Coudray TEC Ebauches SA: «Movement for a timepiece and timepiece comprising such a movement»

2022 EP4303664A1 Eric Coudray Purtec Sarl: «Timepiece movement and timepiece comprising such a movement»