Jaeger-LeCoultre Partners with UNESCO for Tides of Time Program

The Great Barrier Reef, Australia (By Chantal Ferraro/Getty Images)

To mark World Oceans Day earlier this month, Jaeger-LeCoultre was delighted to present an exhibition about its Tides of Time partnership with UNESCO in major cities around the world, including Geneva, Shanghai, Singapore, Moscow, Miami, and São Paulo. Since 2008, the “Grande Maison” and UNESCO have worked hand in hand to help conserve the 47 marine sites that appear on the World Heritage List.

The exhibition was on display at the Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Miami Design District Boutique - including a special event on June 8 with guest speaker Alan Scott, Chief of Resource Education and Interpretation of the Everglades National Park, which is one of the 47 World Heritage Marine sites and a U.S. National Park.

Mangroves in river of grass, Everglades National Park. (G.Gardner/NPSphoto)

Through examples of the work conducted by UNESCO with the support of Jaeger-LeCoultre, visitors will gain a grasp of the threats these natural treasures face and an understanding of the positive impact made by UNESCO and its local partners. The Tides of Time partnership is an essential initiative that will help ensure the sustainability of these unique ocean ecosystems.

Among the projects presented is Cocos Island National Park in Costa Rica where surveillance vessels financed by Jaeger-LeCoultre now enable the park to better counter illegal fishing which pillages the oceans of species in danger of extinction. At Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, Jaeger-LeCoultre supported an exploratory expedition of this largely unexplored site. In the Great Barrier Reef, in Australia, technical support to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre helped establish a 30-year plan geared toward the long-term protection of the largest coral system on earth.

Glacier Bay National Park. (Mark Kelley/UNESCO)

Supporting UNESCO World Heritage Projects

For the past eight years, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been committed to supporting UNESCO in striving to protect the marine treasures on the World Heritage List. Destruction of ecosystems through illegal fishing, pollution, and unsustainable tourism: there are many conservation threats and it is vital to make people more mindful of them. Through its financial support and extensive involvement, the manufacture contributes to the preservation of the most precious resources on our planet and to increasing public awareness.

The involvement of the “Grande Maison” has enabled UNESCO to create a global network of marine managers for whom the Marine Program at UNESCO’s World Heritage Center serves as platform. Tri-annual meetings of all these managers enable sharing best practices in an unprecedented international coordination for ocean conservation. Beyond the financial aspect, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s support therefore also involves concrete action with those working on the ground.

Cocos Island National Park, Costa Rica (Bernard Radvaner/Getty Images)

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Values

Based in the mountains at the heart of the Vallée de Joux since 1833, on the edge of a magnificently maintained lake and forest, since its very beginnings, the maison has been concerned with the natural environment and has been actively involved in protecting its integrity and beauty. Because of its international growth, it is quite natural for Jaeger-LeCoultre to extend its involvement to other sites than its own. The endeavors pursued through the Tides of Time partnership encompass not only natural treasures, but also a legacy of time that nothing can replace.

A watchmaking maison creates pieces to encapsulate time, constantly striving to achieve infinite measurement of the passing hours. This quest gives special strength to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s connection with the conservation of the heritage of time, the most precious thing given to us by the Earth. What is more irreplaceable than natural places created eons ago? Landscapes and ecosystems that have traversed time without being spoiled until man’s hand began inflicting damage on them over the past 150 years, a period representing just a speck of dust in their history. Like true crown jewels of the oceans, these sites need our protection in order to maintain their integrity and to continue their history in peace, in the same way that time ticks by on a clock that nothing should disturb.

West Norwegian Fjords Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord, Norway
(UNESCO, Hyperthese Productions)

Jaeger-LeCoultre places all its sensitivity at the service of this cause in order to better transmit this universal heritage to future generations. It is for this reason that its partnership with UNESCO is part of a long-term process, serene and yet filled with the passion that drives the heartbeat of the “Grande Maison.”