Obituary: Jean-Pierre Hagmann, Master Case Maker
Jean-Pierre Hagmann passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on the night of March 7, 2025 at the age of 84. With his passing, the watchmaking has lost the most important case maker of the last 50 years. He was a friend whom I first met some 35 years ago. Born in Geneva in 1940 to a mechanic, Jean-Pierre was a living legend whose talent was evident from a young age. Jean-Pierre was an incredibly versatile and gifted precision machinist and craftsman. No mechanical problem was too difficult for him to tackle. “If you have a complex mechanical problem, you have to break it down into many small steps,” he once told me. On another occasion, he said, “I’m lazy by nature, so I always look for the simplest and quickest technical solution, which is often the perfect one.” After training as a jeweller at Geneva’s School of Fine Arts in 1956, Jean-Pierre didn’t want to go straight into the profession. His youthful curiosity and fervor led him to seek variety and adventure. Initially, he applied to Holiday on Ice, the iceskating theatre company, as a professional figure skater and taking the role of a clown. When that didn’t work out, he spent two years repairing coffee machines in the bistros of Geneva. Later, he worked as a mechanic in a racing motorbike workshop. Jean-Pierre’s boss recognised his talent and introduced him to one of the most famous racing drivers of the time, Etienne de la Mar. With his technical finesse Jean-Pierre helped the Frenchman win the Eur...
Fratello
