Jean-Baptiste Viot, born june 12th 1967, began his training in watch repair at the Public Watch Making School of Paris in September 1983. 

 After graduating, he went to Switzerland to continue his studies at the Technical School of the Vallée de Joux (Canton de Vaud).

The federal certificate he obtained in June 1988 enabled him to pursue his training with the International Museum of Watchmaking of Chaux de Fonds (Canton de Neuchâtel), resulting, after two further years of study, in a degree in watch restoration.

Back in Paris, J-B VIOT continued perfecting his skills by working in a restoration workshop, namely with Daniel Gendron, rue Saint Jacques, where he learned the many subtleties of the craft.

After finishing his military service, he returned to Switzerland in January 1993 to work for a company which had just been created a year earlier. The company, named H-D-G (haut de gamme), worked for several renowned brands. He thus began his career assembling and adjusting Patek Philippe perpetual calendars.

This first task accomplished, the head of the company, convinced by his training and skills, asked J-B Viot to design and construct a retrograde perpetual calendar prototype, destined to be mounted on Breguet Tourbillon movements.

Other assignments soon followed. Over the five years J-B spent at H-D-G, he worked, among other things, on a Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar Minute Repeater watch for Breguet, ten copies of which were made, a multiple lever perpetual calendar, and a watch giving the time of ten different cities in the world. 

Finally, he took part in the creation of an entirely new calibre (the complete movement of a watch).