Japy Freres

Was a French clock and watchmaking firm founded in 1806 by Frédéric Japy with his sons, Pierre, Fritz and Louis, creating the trademark ‘Japy Freres’. (Japy Brothers).

Prior to handing over the direction of the business to his sons, Frederic had done much to ‘industrialise’ the production of clocks by organising all the assembly activities under one roof in his home town of Beaucourt. This enabled him, as the plant owner, to set the schedule, rather than the individual artisans. This ‘mass production’ method cut in half the time needed to produce a clock by reducing the number of steps and operations needed to produce the finished item. It also meant that assembly could take place using less skilled workers.

Japy’s enamel dials became the standard for the majority of clock manufacturers in France during the period 1850-1930 and there are few French carriage clocks from this period that don’t have a Japy dial.

Japy Freres enjoyed their ‘boom time’ from 1850-1930 as they produced good quality watches and clocks that the ‘common man’ could afford, due to their mechanised production methods. They also got contracts to produce clocks and watches for many different armed forces in Europe. They also won a number of medals at international exhibitions throughout the nineteenth century.
Over the years the firm diversified its manufacturing to produce coffee grinders, typewriters, enamelware, kitchen utensils, refrigerator pumps and specialist machines that could transform steel and copper wire into machine parts.

However, by the early 1900 the firm lost direction and many of the businesses were sold off and the manufacturing base was dismantled. The firm ceased trading in the late 1930s.