La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning
The La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle watchmaking town planning site consists of two towns located next to each other in a remote area of the Swiss Jura Mountains, with land unsuitable for farming. Their planning and architecture reflect the watchmakers’ need for rational organization. The towns were planned in the early 19th century, after extensive fires, and owe their existence to this single industry. Their layout follows an open plan of parallel strips, with a mixture of residences and workshops, reflecting the needs of the local watchmaking culture, which dates back to the 17th century and is still active today. The site is an outstanding example of a single-industry manufacturing town, well preserved and still active. The town planning of both towns accommodated the transition from manual production in a cottage industry to more centralized factory production in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Karl Marx described La Chaux-de-Fonds as a “huge factory town” in Capital and analyzed the division of labor in the watchmaking industry in the Jura region.