Janek Deleskiewicz.
Hello Olivier, welcome to my home. My name is Janek Deleskiewicz, and I’ve had the good fortune to be in charge of design at JAEGER-LECOULTRE for almost 30 years. I’m passionate about art and music, and always have several projects on the go.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved drawing. I found drawing and painting competition diplomas in my boxes dating from when I was eight or ten. My father opened my eyes to the beauty of the arts and gave me a taste for travelling and discovering other cultures, and my mother fed me with painters’ books and taught me a taste for work well done.
I think I developed very early on what we now call an emotional intelligence, and a capacity for anticipation, which have particularly helped me in my life and in my career.
After studying industrial design and gaining initial experience at Ford in Gironde, I cut my teeth in a design agency with Edouard Maurel in Paris – I loved the staging of the recent Eisenstein exhibition at the Centre Pompidou – then I joined the team of Roger Tallon, the icon of design at the time. It was a revelation. Encounters and anecdotes with exceptional artists. I immersed myself in the world of culture, artists and Parisian nightlife…
First and foremost, I met Henry-John Belmont.
I was working on a project for CERTINA at Roger Tallon, and I heard that the watchmaking industry was looking for designers. I asked for a meeting in Besançon and Henry-John Belmont, the head of YEMA at the time, invited me to spend a day at the Baselworld watch fair. The entire watchmaking industry was there, and we browsed the stands together. He asked me what I thought of the brands and the watches. I didn’t know it yet, but it was a job interview. At the end of the day, he said to me: “You’ve been hired, if you’re still interested”.
That’s how I joined YEMA, a subsidiary of the Matra Group at the time. I spent 5 years there, dividing my time between Besançon and Paris, working as a designer, a job that for me is the link between art and technology. The watch industry represented this ultimate relationship. I’m still convinced that it’s the function that takes precedence over the beauty of the object, a highly subjective criterion that evolves over time. The purpose of design is to create a useful and functional object.
Henry-John Belmont, who had left YEMA when Matra’s watch brands were acquired by a Japanese group, had joined JAEGER-LECOULTRE to take over its management. I had left YEMA for Kohler & Rekow, and he asked me to join him as a designer.
A new dynamic was set in motion:
– The brand’s heritage (plans, machines), protected by individual initiatives, including that of watchmaker Mr. Falci, came out of the attics; these pieces would form the basis of the JAEGER-LECOULTRE museum;
– Appropriate production tools were put in place, with the construction of a real manufacture that produced from A to Z, which required 2 years of work, including the design of the machine tools (for the manufacture of the cases in particular);
– The problem of water-resistance on rectangular watches needed to be resolved;
– Jean-Pierre Sassart, engineer and technical director, was behind the reindustrialisation of the Manufacture, and his role was decisive.
The project lasted 2 years from initiation to production, from 1989 to 1991, the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Reverso in 1931.
A whole team was behind the return of the Reverso. It’s like in an orchestra, sometimes you’re a soloist, sometimes you’re an accompanist, you make yourself available, you’re at the service of someone else.
Early years at Jaeger-LeCoultre.
After the release of the 60th anniversary watch, one of my roles was to push the use of the 2nd face with new functionalities.
To do this, we had to collaborate between design and engineering to bring out a new complication on a limited series of 500 pink gold pieces every 2 years, as part of a programme of 5 types of complication over 10 years. It was a great success!
The main objective was to maintain a limited production of 500 rose gold pieces, even if demand was higher, so as not to overuse these precious metal timepieces after the years of crisis: it was better to manage the shortage than to be faced with overproduction.
For each complication, a technical feat was required to ensure that the axes of the new functions appeared in the right places on a flat rectangular pivoting watch… right up to a perpetual calendar!
Original drawings from the early 1990s.
It’s true that I was lucky enough to be part of the JAEGER-LECOULTRE adventure when I joined the Grande Maison as a designer in 1987, then head designer in 1995, creative director in 2000 and finally artistic and design director in 2002. Henry-John Belmont and then Jérôme Lambert placed their trust in me over the long term.
I have fully experienced the creative act, from the idea, then the drawing, to the design that takes on board the technical constraints, to the object that comes to life and arouses an emotion, and which finally no longer belongs to you once the watch has been unveiled to the public. A long process comes to an end, opening the way to another challenge.
Being part of an alchemy between a team of exceptional engineers – I’m thinking of Jean-Claude Meylan, Philippe Vandel, Francis Cretin and Roger Guignard in the technical office – and a small design team that integrated increasingly complex industrial constraints, is a powerful driving force. I like to think of us as an industrial arts team.
Henry-John Belmont also wanted to create new avenues of communication and injected a feminine dynamic into the Communication and Advertising department. With Corinne Paget-Blanc, we built an excellent cohesion between design and communication.
I was also lucky enough to have an enriching experience with Franco Cologni and the Creative Academy that he set up in Milan in 2004: I gave a few courses, ran competitions and recruited new talent.
This adventure has taken me to every continent, I’ve spent a lot of time in Asia in particular. I’ve really enjoyed taking on a PR role to promote JAEGER-LECOULTRE.
Original studies for women models.
While the Reverso 60th Anniversary is certainly the most emblematic and a starting point – and I can appreciate how lucky I was to be part of the adventure of reviving an icon – I am particularly proud of the Reverso Duetto, which is designed for women who lead several lives in a single day, with two atmospheres, two faces, a functional face during the day, and a jewellery face that sparkles for the evening. A fine illustration of the use of this second side.
One regret? That the L’Idéale model didn’t work outside Japan, a magnificent model, a design success story; a design can always be reborn, and the recent return to vintage-inspired shapes and models is a good illustration of this, nothing is definitively lost!
Reverso Duetto and Grande Taille Tourbillon drawings from the 1990s.
I associate the expression “The Manufacture of Manufactures” with Henry-John Belmont, who used to say that he was selling “the chimney of the factory”, the very best of JAEGER-LECOULTRE’s know-how; almost every brand has come to look for a JAEGER-LECOULTRE movement in the course of its existence, from Cartier and Patek Philippe to Audemars Piguet, for example. Many prestigious brands did not have a manufacture at the time. I invite readers to rediscover this spirit in the magnificent book “De la Forge à la Manufacture Horlogère”, which traces the history of JAEGER-LECOULTRE.
As for the slogan “The Eye, the Hand, the Heart”, it is certainly the most important expression to characterise the brand. We came up with it internally, and it expresses what unites us and what drives us every day, the strong values that support a collective. It’s not a marketing ploy, it’s a reality that I experienced and that we shared within the Manufacture.
That atmosphere is still with us today. I recently visited the JAEGER-LECOULTRE boutique on Place Vendôme. The brand’s image has continued to develop, and I see professionals who are proud to carry the brand’s values, who are proud of the quality of the pieces they sell. I like to say that it’s the product that makes the brand, and I felt that emotion.
These are extraordinary moments for me, in particular the 80th anniversary of the Reverso in 2011, when I was asked to play the sax at the curtain raiser, and the pleasure of playing with my friend Belkacem and his band. Unforgettable! As I travel a lot, I’ve also played in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Melbourne and, closer to home, Vienna and Milan.
I’m still playing saxophone, I’m enrolled at the Conservatoire, it’s important for my personal balance.
By the way, I’ve included a few of my favourites, such as John Coltrane, which you can add to the playlist in this newsletter.
Janek playing saxophone in 2011.
I really enjoyed painting with my partner Naomi Servet, and together we painted a scene in Paris where nature is reclaiming its rights. We were selected by the Binômes Centenaires jury, which brings together artists from different generations to work together on a painting. We’ve decided to embark on a new project – the best is yet to come!
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