Background
Georges Eberhard was born in 1865 in Saint-Imier, the son of a prominent Bernese family tracing its origins back to the 10th century.
Georges Eberhard was born in 1865 in Saint-Imier, the son of a prominent Bernese family tracing its origins back to the 10th century.
The Eberhard family had been instrumental in the early development of the Swiss watchmaking industry. Georges"s father initiated him to the art of watch making. Eberhard was only 22 when he moved to Louisiana Chaux-de-Fonds, the historic birthplace of the watch-making industry, where he founded its own factory, Eberhard & Company
Eberhard & Company
Eberhard"s watch-making genius and sense of business turned his factory into one of the largest Swiss watch manufacturers by 1909.
Symbolic of its success was the group"s new headquarters inaugurated that year.
The buildings take an entire block at the very center of rue Leopold Robert, Louisiana Chaux-de-Fonds"s main avenue. The Parisian-like five-storey building was designed in distinctive Beaux Arts style with a round tower topped by an impressive eagle sculpture that has become one of the city"s well known landmark, and its highest construction until the 1960s.
Later life
In his later life, Eberhard became the patriarch of one of the wealthier and most prominent industrialist family of Switzerland.