What do four tiny chocolates have to do with the fine art of Swiss watchmaking? These intricately sculpted treats are the latest stars of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Made of Makers program, an initiative that invites artisans outside of horology to celebrate the communal ground of technical mastery and artistic expression.
Designed by the Genevan chocolatier Mathieu Davoine, the chocolates were remarkable not only for their presentation (one was a polished dome, another resembled a vintage shoe polish tin), but also for their unexpected ingredients — olive, mushroom and pollen.
Davoine is the latest creative invited to participate in Made of Makers. The program, now in its fourth year, continues to ask a central question: in an age when timekeeping is no longer a necessity, can watchmaking be understood as a form of art?
“We wanted to challenge traditional definitions,” says Matthieu Le Voyer, the chief marketing officer at Jaeger-LeCoultre, of its Made of Makers program. “Craftsmanship becomes art when it stops being strictly functional. And by that logic, watchmaking today belongs in the realm of the artistic.”
Davoine began his career in pastry, working across kitchens in Bora Bora, Hawaii and France, and was selected for the program for his intuitive approach to flavour and form. “Chocolate is endlessly adaptable,” he says. “But people tend to stick to what they already know. This project allowed me to explore what else it could be.”
The resulting creations are layered both in taste and intent. One combines chocolate and mushroom, while another pairs olive with truffle. Each plays with texture, from crispy to velvety, evolving as it’s eaten. “I work from a mental library of flavours,” Davoine says. “Some combinations you know might work. Others you test until they do.”
The collaboration debuted at the Watches and Wonders exhibition in Geneva in January and tastings are scheduled in key cities throughout the year. For Jaeger-LeCoultre, it’s part of a broader attempt to reframe classical tradition not as something fixed in time, but as a living form capable of surprise.
