18th C •
Pierre Jaquet-Droz (1721–1790), mathematician, watchmaker and machine designer •
Jean-Pierre Droz (1746–1823), medalist and Minter •
Heinrich Franz Brandt (1789–1845), a Swiss-born medal designer •
Louis Léopold Robert (1794–1835), painter •
Fritz Courvoisier (1799–1854), a watchmaker, military man and politician.
19th C •
Aimé Humbert-Droz (1819–1900), a Swiss politician, traveller and educator; President of the Swiss Council of States 1856 •
Léon Gallet (1832–1899), watchmaker, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and past family patriarch of
Gallet & Co., watchmakers •
Elise, Countess of Edla (born Elise Friedericke Hensler) (1836–1929), a Swiss-born American actress and singer and the morganatic second wife of King
Ferdinand II of Portugal •
Numa Droz (1844–1899), politician and Bundesrat (
FDP) •
Paul Charles Dubois (1848–1918), a Swiss
neuropathologist •
Oscar Tschirky (1866–1950), a Swiss-American restaurateur who was maître d'hôtel of the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, emigrated in 1883 •
Jules Jacot-Guillarmod (1868-1925), a Swiss physician, mountaineer and photographer •
Paul Ditisheim (1868-1945), a Swiss watchmaker, inventor and industrialist •
Theophil Friedrich Christen (1873–1920), mathematician, physician, economist and a doctor •
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), lived in La Chaux-de-Fonds during his Swiss exile •
Louis Kollros (1878–1959), a Swiss mathematician and academic •
Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941), a Swiss race car driver, co-founder of the
Chevrolet Motor Car Company in the US in 1911 •
Suzanne Girault (1882–1973), a Swiss-born French politician, co-leader of the
French Communist Party •
Arthur Chevrolet (1884–1946), a Swiss race car driver and automobile manufacturer •
Georges Sauser-Hall (1884-1966), scholar of comparative and international law •
Le Corbusier (1887–1965), a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and a pioneer of modern architecture, born here as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret. •
Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961), poet and novelist of the European modernist movement, born as Frédéric-Louis Sauser •
Theophil Spoerri (1890-1974), a Swiss writer and academic with a strong religious element •
Jules Humbert-Droz (1891–1971), politician,
Communist International,
KPS &
SP •
Alfred Stucky (1892-1969), a Swiss engineer specialising in concrete dams •
Eugénie Droz (1893–1976), a Swiss romance scholar, editor, publisher and writer •
René Richard (1895–1982), a Swiss-born Canadian painter of semi-abstract landscapes of the Canadian wilderness, emigrated 1909 •
Charles Barraud (1897–1997), a Swiss painter •
François Barraud (1899–1934), a Swiss painter
20th C •
Aimé Barraud (1902–1954), a Swiss painter, part of Neue Sachlichkeit (
New Objectivity) •
René Ferté (1903–1958), a Swiss silent movie actor in the French cinema •
Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967), a Swiss Catholic physician, writer, theologian and a mystic and stigmatist. •
Pierre Graber (1908–2003), politician and Bundesrat (
SP) •
Georges Piroué (1920–2005), writer • Monsignor
Pierre Mamie (1920–2008), the Roman Catholic Bishop of the
Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg 1970-1995 •
Armand Borel (1923–2003), a Swiss mathematician, worked in
algebraic topology and co-created the contemporary theory of
linear algebraic groups •
Pierre Aubert (1927–2016), lawyer, politician and Bundesrat •
François Pantillon (born 1928), composer and conductor •
Daniel Pauly (born 1946), a French-born marine biologist and fisheries scientist •
Grégoire Müller (born 1947), a contemporary Swiss figurative painter and writer, lives in La Chaux-de-Fonds •
Anne-Lise Grobéty (1949–2010), a French-language Swiss journalist and author of short stories, poetry and radio plays •
Franck Muller (born 1958), a Swiss watchmaker of watches €38,000 average price •
Anita Porchet (born 1961), a Swiss watch enameller •
Nuria Gorrite (born 1970), grew up in Morges, President of the
Council of State of Vaud •
Stefano Macaluso (born 1975), an Italian businessman, has lived in La Chaux-de-Fonds since 2003, works with watches •
Samuel Blaser (born 1981), a Swiss trombonist and composer.
Sport •
Georges Antenen (1903–1979), a Swiss cyclist, competed at the
1924 Summer Olympics •
Pierre-André Flückiger (1919-??), a Swiss sports shooter, competed at the
1952 and
1960 Summer Olympics •
Willy Kernen (1929-2009), a Swiss footballer, earned 41 caps for the Switzerland national football team and participated in three World Cups. •
Charles Antenen (1929–2000), footballer, 472 team games and 56 games for the national side •
Nicole Petignat (born 1966), a Swiss former football referee •
Magali Messmer (born 1971), professional elite triathlete, bronze medallist at the
2008 Summer Olympics •
Olivia Nobs (born 1982), a Swiss snowboarder, bronze medallist at the
2010 Winter Olympics •
Sabrina Jaquet (born 1987), a Swiss Badminton player, competed at the
2012 Summer Olympics == Watch companies ==