Page 41 - DIVA1 2026

culture

qualities were needed to produce their perfect manufacturing company, JC Biver, in Givrins
cheese with the utmost patience, precision, (near Genolier, close to Geneva) in 2022. Despite
rigour and hard work over the summer, and to never having been a cheesemaker before, he
meticulously refine it. now produces 5 tons of his own exclusive
cheese annually. His passion for watchmaking
‘Later on, the farmers decided to do watchmaking and the talent and qualities needed to perfect it
not only in winter but also in summer because it developed his passion for cheesemaking.
paid better than milk and cheese,’ continues Biver.
And so, farmers became watchmakers, and much As for L’Horologer cheese, it is perhaps
later, the first converted farms began to appear, impossible to say whether it is an innovation of a
with specifically redesigned triple windows to cheesemaker or a watchmaker returning to their
capture more daylight and snow light. There ancestral roots, as the two are so interlinked.
were almost no cows left, just watchmakers. However, if you happen to see this cheese, do
The whole Swiss watchmaking industry began not pass it by. Stop and buy some seconds of it to
on farms where cheese was made.” In fact, the experience the time, meticulousness, precision,
cheese farms turned into watchmaking farms, and patience that are needed to create the
increasing in size and spreading across the whole perfect watch and the perfect cheese. Now that
of the Jura region, from Brassus in the Vallée de you know how they are interlinked and how one
Joux through Le Locle, La Chaux-de-Fonds of created the other and could not exist without the
the Watch Valley, via Neuchâtel, Saint-Imier, qualities of the other, cut yourself a slice of time
and Bienne/Biel, and finally to Schaffhausen. and savour the moment!
This is where high horology and renowned Swiss
watchmaking originate. But now we know that
it was the cheesemakers who made the Swiss
watchmaking industry triumph around the
world !

Incidentally, Mr Biver himself is a passionate
cheesemaker. After 43 years in the watchmaking
industry, he opened his own luxury watch

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