Jean Pierre Moise Agassiz (1705–1784) was Pastor of Lucens, Thierrens and Constantine, all of which were near Lake Neuchatel.
Auguste Agassiz moved to the Swiss town of Saint-Imier and set up his own watch firm in 1833 in partnership with Florian Morel and Henri Raiguel.
In 1866 Francillon acquired two plots of land called Les Longines ('long and narrow fields') and he built a factory there, allowing all the staff to be under one roof for the first time.
His elder son Arthur David Lewis Agassiz (1771–1866) managed the family business and lost a great deal of his father's fortune.
Their son Frederick Joseph Edlmann (1829–1890), was a partner of the merchant bank Brown Shipley in the City of London, and bought the house Hawkwood, near Bromley, Kent.
Another son, Joseph Ernest Edlmann (1831–1895) was a Major in the King's Dragoon Guards, based in Coventry, and lived in Kent House, Leamington Spa.
He continued to travel widely, becoming a friend of the King of Prussia who was godfather to one of his children and who bought another a commission in the British Army.
His eldest surviving son, Lewis Nunn Agassiz, also had a military career, but went on to become a pioneer in Canada.