Frédéric Japy, clock-maker (1749-1812)

Born in Beaucourt in 1749, he had from an early age settled his ambitions on the clock-making industry of the Jura. First apprenticed to a Swiss-clock-maker, he then engaged as a worker with a mechanical-inventor, Jean-Jacques Jeanneret-Gris. It is thanks to the latter that he was soon able to invent machine-tools and thus mechanize his production. He set up the first French factory for rough watch movements in Beaucourt in 1777. The genius of Japy is undeniable and his production grew from 2.400 designs in 1780 to 12.700 in 1806. In that year he set up the firm Japy Frères, in which his 3 sons started as workers and later went on to take over the direction. After his death, in 1812, the sons continued to develop the firm and, as of 1826, began to produce cast-iron cooking utensils. Thus were born the first "casseroles" (saucepans) in Fesches-le-Châtel, a place referred to as "la casserie" after "Casse", the name given to tin plate metal