) was a Swiss horologist

Horology

Horology is the art or science of measuring time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, sundials, clepsydras, timers, time recorders and marine chronometers are all examples of instruments used to measure time.People interested in horology are called horologists...

 and a founder of Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin is a Swiss manufacture of prestige watches and a brand of the Richemont group. Considered by watch enthusiasts to be one of the finest traditional watch makers in the world along with Patek Philippe & Co., Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars Piguet.It employs around 400 people...

 watch company.

Jean-Marc Vacheron was born the son of a weaver

Weaver

The Ploceidae, or weavers, are small passerine birds related to the finches.These are seed-eating birds with rounded conical bills, most of which are from Sub-Saharan Africa, with fewer species in tropical Asia. A few species have been introduced outside their native range. The weaver group is...

 in 1731. By the age of 20, he was already a multi-talented watchmaker

Watchmaker

A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...

 and had developed many diverse interests. After completing his apprenticeship, he found his way into the elite circle of Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

's cabinotiers. But he wasn't entirely satisfied with the contemplative existence of a cabinotier, so he opened a watch atelier of his own on 17. September 1755 in the old city of Geneva, the so-called Cite, where he employed one or perhaps even two apprentices. His timepieces naturally bore the name "Jean-Marc Vacheron". At that time he was 24 years old and was one of many cabinotiers-watchmakers who specialized in the production of certain components, selling them to so-called etablisseurs. The watchmakers were called cabinotiers in honor of the well-lit cabinets on the top floors of the houses in Geneva's Saint-Gervais neighborhood where they worked. His decision to begin his own company and hire an apprentice illustrated his vision and laid the cornerstone for one of the finest and most reputable watch manufacturers

Manufacture d'horlogerie

Manufacture d'horlogerie is a French horological term of art that is also used in English. In horology, the term is usually encountered in its abbreviated form manufacture. This term of art is used when describing either a wrist watch movement/watchworks fabricator or its products...

. The times have not always been easy for Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin is a Swiss manufacture of prestige watches and a brand of the Richemont group. Considered by watch enthusiasts to be one of the finest traditional watch makers in the world along with Patek Philippe & Co., Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars Piguet.It employs around 400 people...

. A notary certified document records that a loan of 1000 pounds silver was granted to Jean-Marc Vacheron on September 29, 1773. This sum could be related to the death of his aged father, Jean-Jacques Vacheron on February 11 of the same year, or the loan may have been necessary because of the inclement economic climate that prevailed at the time, when hunger was a fact of daily life and few buyers could be found for luxurious merchandise of the Genevan industry. Jean-Marc Vacheron, the father of five living children, struggled against various obstacles. As was usual in watchmaking families, his sons Louis Andre (born in 1755) and Abraham (born in 1760) had begun following in his footsteps. In all likelihood, he had personally trained them in the family's traditional metier. The older brother signed his products "Louis Andre Vacheron", the younger sibling initially signed them "Abraham Vacheron" starting in 1785 and then, after his marriage to Annette Girod in 1786, he began engraving them with the name "A. Vacheron Girod". The corporate name underwent further alterations in ensuing years. These changes were initially caused by the Ancien Régime and later by Swiss commercial legislation, both of which did not permit firms to use permanent names. Only after the establishment of joint stock companies

Joint stock company

A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...

toward the end of the 19th century did it become possible to register a permanent name. Prior to that time, a firm was obligated to do business under the name(s) of its owner(s). The name of the owner's spouse was sometimes added to avoid mistaken identity. Individuals, rather than enterprises, occupied the foreground. For this reason, the watchmaking lineage of Louis Andre Vacheron, who died in 1814, ended around 1837 with the vanishing of the last traces left by his son Pierre Andre, who had sired no horologically active offspring. It thus remained for Jean-Marc Vacheron, his son Abraham, and starting in 1810, Abraham's son Jacques-Barthelemy to earn for the name "Vacheron" an immortal place in the history of watchmaking.