Jean-Marie Schaller

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Founder & Creative Director

Louis Moinet

"In a watch, you see the brain of the engineer, the heart of the designer, the eye of the artist, and the hand of the watchmaker."

Jean-Marie Schaller is a Swiss watch industry entrepreneur best known for founding Les Ateliers Louis Moinet in 2004 and serving as its CEO and Creative Director. He is widely credited with rescuing the name and legacy of Louis Moinet (1768–1853) from near-total historical obscurity and establishing it as a serious independent brand in contemporary horology.

Schaller entered the industry in 1991 at Siber Hegner (later DKSH), where he worked alongside Daniel Roth during the early period of that watchmaker's independent brand. His first revival project was Perrelet, the Swiss brand named for the reputed inventor of the automatic watch — a project he launched with an investor in 1993 and left in 2000. After a period in France and a spell in the marketing department at Lacoste Watches, where he grew annual volume from 40,000 to 266,000 pieces, he acquired the dormant Louis Moinet name and founded the brand in 2004.

Under Schaller's direction, Louis Moinet has established a distinct position in independent horology: producing highly limited timepieces — most editions are capped at twelve or sixty pieces — incorporating exceptional materials such as meteorites, lunar rock, and fossilised coral, alongside original mechanical complications developed in partnership with Concepto. The brand produces its own cases, dials, hands, and movement decorations, and holds membership in the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. Schaller has described his connection to Louis Moinet in unusually personal terms, suggesting that the historical figure acts as a kind of intuitive creative guide — a stance that, whatever its metaphysics, reflects a genuine and sustained commitment to the brand's founding philosophy.

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Jean-Marie Schaller