Japy Frères
Frédéric Japy brought machine production to French clockmaking in 1777, and the movements his family firm made sit inside countless French mantel clocks.
Frédéric Japy and the first clock factory
Frédéric Japy was born in Beaucourt, near Belfort in eastern France, and lived from 1749 to 1812. He trained as a watchmaker in Le Locle in Switzerland and in 1777 settled back in Beaucourt, then a village of fewer than 300 people, according to the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
His business grew around a workshop making ébauches, the blank, unfinished watch movements that other makers completed, and later pendulum clock movements, according to the regional heritage inventory of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The Banco de España's collection notes credit the firm with pioneering step-by-step factory production, with its workers inventing machines to make screws, wheels and pivots in quantity and improving the firing of enamel dials.
Japy was born on 22 May 1749, the second of twelve children, according to Antique Clock Guy, which also says he bought some of the few clockmaking machines then available, invented others to standardize parts, and brought the work under one roof, roughly halving assembly time. The Banco de España records about 300 employees by 1801.
Japy Frères and its many products
Frédéric Japy retired in 1806 and handed the business to his sons, and the regional inventory dates the name Japy Frères, Japy Brothers, to that year. The Banco de España instead links a renaming to Japy Frères et Cie to around 1854, so the forms of the name may have changed more than once.
The workforce grew from about 500 around 1805 to 1,200 in 1831. Japy branched out early into hardware such as locks, screws and bolts, and over two centuries it also made watches, machine tools, coffee grinders, pumps, enameled pans, motors and typewriters, according to the regional inventory and ERIH. ERIH notes that many have argued this diversification weakened the company.
The firm built its Fonteneilles factory in the early 19th century and later added a foundry, and in 1928 it became Établissements Japy Frères. Antique Clock Guy notes that Japy enamel dials became a standard part used by many French and foreign clockmakers for about 150 years.
How to identify a Japy movement
The name on the dial is not always the name of the movement maker. A mantel clock of about 1855 in the Banco de España collection shows this clearly. Its dial is signed J. Delaye of Grenoble, but the back plate of the round Paris-style movement carries the Japy seal, which the catalog transcribes as JAPY FRÈRES & Cie with GRE MED D'HONNEUR and a cross, alongside several numbers.
That medal stamp helps with dating. Japy won medals at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris and again in 1867, and the bank's catalog notes that a movement bearing the 1855 medal stamp must have been made after that year. Antique Clock Guy adds that some late 1890s Japy alarm clocks carry the company logo with a mention of a grand prize won in 1878.
See also: what each part of an enamel clock dial is for on OnlineClock.app.
Decline and legacy
Accounts of Japy's later clock business differ. The Banco de España says the firm closed its clock factory in 1900. Antique Clock Guy says many of the businesses were sold off in the early 1900s, that a run of 1930s clocks in geometric styles with tin cases sold only modestly, and that the Second World War did the firm serious damage. The regional inventory, by contrast, traces a much larger industrial group that kept growing, opened a heavy electrical plant in 1920 to 1921, and employed about 1,700 people in 1969.
The group was split up in the mid-1950s: the regional inventory says into four independent firms in 1954 to 1955, while the European Route of Industrial Heritage says into several concerns in 1955. The last of them, Japy-Marne, went into liquidation in 1979, ending the Japy name. The Musée Frédéric Japy opened in 1986 in the old clock factory building in Beaucourt, known as La Pendulerie.
Questions people ask
How do I tell how old my Japy Frères clock is?
Check the back plate of the movement. A stamp mentioning the grand medal of honor means the movement was made after Japy's 1855 Paris award. The case style, dial and any retailer's name help narrow the date further.
Why does my clock say Japy on the movement but another name on the dial?
Japy made movements that other clockmakers finished and signed. A mantel clock in the Banco de España collection, for example, has a dial signed by J. Delaye of Grenoble and a movement stamped by Japy Frères.
Is Japy Frères still in business?
No. The group was split up in the mid-1950s, and the last of the successor companies, Japy-Marne, was liquidated in 1979. A museum in Beaucourt tells the company's story.