Situated in a high valley in the Jura, the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds (rebuilt on a regular plan after a fire in 1794) is the capital of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which was first established here about 1705 (several hundred firms: visitors can occasionally tour some of the establishments). The
town is home of the Théâtre Populaire Romand, the only professional acting troupe of West Switzerland, and an important center of Esperanto.
La Chaux-de-Fonds was the birthplace of the Romantic painter Léopold Robert (1794-1835), of the famous pilot and automobile manufacturer Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941), the poet and writer Blaise Cendrars (Frédéric Sauser, 1887-1961) and the famous architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier (1887-1965).
The town of La Chaux-de-Fonds features illuminated ski trails, lifts from town, cross-country skiing, ski-bob run, indoor and outdoor ice rinks, tobogganing, and a ski school.