To see within the framework of Bdfil in Lausanne until May 18, an exhibition shows the work of twenty artists from here and elsewhere who imagined the daily life of the watchmaking women of the Joux valley in the 18th century. With the starting point for a misogynistic regulation of 1749 which prohibited them from working.
“No female will be able to work on the said profession only for works allowed in the masterys of the Vaud Paÿs, such as chaintes, spirals and others. And those who disobey the almond to be in knowledge of mastery”. Established in 1749 and adopted two years later, article 7 of the Watchmark Regulation of the Joux Valley is the starting point for “Clock Fiction: La Vallée des Horlogères”. This exhibition, organized by the BDFIL festival and the watchmaker of the Joux valley, aims to highlight the invisibilized work of watchmaking women in the 18th century.
A high place in the manufacturing of watches
How did a small Vaudois Jura-Nord valley of 7,000 inhabitants become a Haut-Lieu of the watchmaking manufacturing? In particular, thanks to the harshness of winters which made all work in the fields impossible.
From the 18th century, farmers in the Joux valley began to make watchmakers and components in their barn during the cold season. Their wives and daughters are not to be outdone, even if the archives document their work very little. And yet, the work of the Combières (name given to the inhabitants of the Joux valley) was officially prohibited in 1749, via this famous regulation.
Visit the work of watchmaking
“Clock Fiction: The Valley of Horlogers” is a way of remedying the invisibility of the work of women of the time, and this through the gaze of twenty artists. Most were also very inspired by this memorable regulation.
With her stripping humor, the illustrator Manon Roland deciphers in a fun way the “relous and boring” professions reserved for women, Hervé Bourhis wonders about the old -fashioned French and the terms of the regulation. As for Alessandra Respini, she imagined the first strike of watchmaking women in 1751. A strike with the consequences to say the least surprising.
Fanny Vaucher, to whom we owe in particular the drawings of the historical albums “The century of Emma” and “The century of Jeanne”, was guided by curiosity: “What interested me was to understand why men wanted to clarify the exclusion of women of certain areas of watchmaking. Because it seemed not obvious”, confides the illustrator in the show Vertigo.
Sarah Clément
“Clock Fiction: La Vallée des Horlogères”, Bdfil, Lausanne, from May 5 to 18, 2025; WORLOGER Espace de la Vallée de JOUX, LE CHENIT, from May 6 to February 6, 2026.
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