Born in Saint-Dizier, France, Emmanuel Bouchet spent most of his youth between the Haut Doubs, where part of his family lives, and the Meuse region. He was immersed into the watchmaking world from an early age through contacts with family members working in the industry.  Through many years of regularly wandering through workshops, the idea of embracing this profession gradually became an obvious choice. 

Emmanuel thus trained as a watchmaker-repairer in Morteau, France, graduating in 1980.  He began his watchmaking career in the family jewelry store headed by his father Léon, whom he succeeded in 1984, and who taught him the jewelry trade in which he earned his Master’s hallmark in the early 1990s.  For around 20 years, Emmanuel was involved in selling and repairing watches, as well as restoring antique clocks for the major French national museums. 

1999 saw the start of a new professional adventure for Emmanuel in Switzerland, where he began working for a number of prestigious watch manufacturers and perfected his craft by dealing with the most exceptional horological complications: extra-thin movements, perpetual calendars, retrograde chronographs, tourbillons... He served in various capacities including taking charge of a complications workshop, of a horological methods department and of a watch laboratory.  These experiences enabled him to participate in the development and the industrialization of a number of complex calibres and modules. 

Emmanuel took a consistent interest in all facets of his profession, from design through to product industrialization.  That is what led him in 2008 to co-found Centagora, a company based in Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane, Switzerland, to make his skills and expertise in the field of high-end watchmaking and technology available to the watch industry at large.