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Abraham
Vacheron died in 1843. A year later, Charles Caesar replaced
Jacques-Barthelemy at the helm. Still a young man, he
was by then a fully trained, experienced watchmaker. One
of his first tasks was to oversee the company's move to
the Tour de I'lle, on an island in the middle of the Rhone
river. At the time, Genevan watchmakers still worked 60
hours a week, with a daily break during which they drank
a bit of white wine and ate a square shaped cheese called
a watchmakers chicken.
The
revolutionary uprisings of 1848 did not spare Geneva,
least of all the watch industry. The agitation in the
city came to a head when the watch factory workers,
driven to extremes by the economic crisis of the period,
got the upper hand over the cities conservative authorities.
Thereupon the reformist Radical party led by James Fazy
came to power and managed to bring calm back to the
city and to the industry that was in mainstay. But although
Charles-Cesar's office had been wrecked by cannon fire
and shots had riddled the foundry, the company survived.
By
1849, the troubles had abated. After one last trip to
Italy, then itself in the throes of a revolution, Francois
Constantin returned to Geneva for good, where he died
five years later. His nephew and heir took over as head
of the company until 1867, when Charles Caesar's son
Charles succeeded him.
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