History
of Audemars Piguet
In 1875, Jules-Louis
Audemars (1851-1918), in order to cope with orders for luxury
calibres emanating from the great watchmaking houses in Geneva,
became officially associated with his childhood friend, Edward-Auguste
Piguet (1853-1919). He handled the technical management of the
small company, while his associate took charge of sales and marketing
aspects, travelling through many towns and subsequently continents
to establish direct contact with connoisseurs.
The company
prospered and developed, coming through World War I and the Great
Depression without being unduly affected, thanks to the production
of ladies' wristwatches and ultra-thin models. When World War
II ended, the Manufacture reorganised to create a more accessible
line of watches. The repercussions of the watchmaking crisis
in the 1970s were scarcely felt by the company, mainly because
in 1972 it made the daring choice to launch the world's first
high-end sports watch in steel: the Royal Oak. The Manufacture
currently employs a staff of 500 worldwide and is starting the
new millennium on a resolutely confident note.
The first
wristwatch with tourbillon and mechanical winding, the smallest
self-winding watch with perpetual calendar, the Dual Time, the
Ladies Minute Repeater Chiming watch… throughout its history,
the Manufacture has introduced a succession of landmark records
and world firsts. Driven by this same conquering spirit, it is
still producing the world's thinnest and most complex calibres.
A trio of
warships christened Royal Oak, named after the legendary "royal
oak" - a hollowed out tree which offered King Charles II
a safe hiding place from his pursuers - lent their distinctive
name in 1972 to an equally distinctive luxury sports watch -
the Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet. Since then, the Royal Oak has
become the leading model of the world-famous firm in Le Brassus
and helped the stainless steel wristwatch attain respectability
among watch lovers around the world.
The Audemars Piguet story begins in 1875 when twenty three year old watchmaker
Jules Audemars and future partner Edward-August Piguet, just twenty-one years
of age, met in the Vallee de Joux. Both had learned the watchmaker's trade
after finishing public school in their hometown of Le Brassus by training at
the bench and returned to the Vallee de Joux to find jobs in the local watchmaking
industry. Jules Audemars was soon producing raw components for watch movements,
while Edward-August Piguet sought employment as a "repasseur" (a
master watchmaker who performs the final regulation on a watch). Shortly after
their meeting in 1875, the two talented watchmakers decided to join forces
and founded the firm that would someday come to be known as Audemars, Piguet
et Cie.
Almost from the beginning,
Audemars was in charge of production and the technical side, while his partner
Piguet focused on sales. Their partnership was not an immediate success,
however. In fact, the Audemars Piguet trademark was not even registered until
1882 and the firm's "official founding" did not take place until
1889. Already, however, Audemars Piguet et Cie had become the third largest
employer for watch manufacturing in the Canton of Vaud. More importantly
perhaps, both men had deliberately shifted their focus towards the production
of high-quality, complex, ultra-precise watches.
Shortly after the official
founding in 1889, a branch office was built in Geneva and the partners decided
to produce all of their components and assemble the finished watches in-house.
This allowed the firm to maintain strict quality control over their products
and as a result, only products of the highest quality left the workshop.
In short order, the greatest, most renowned retail jewelers were ordering
watches from Le Brassus. Today, one can find many Audemars Piguet pocket
watches identifiable as an Audemars Piguet only by their serial number, the
result of prestigious jewelers, such as Gubelin and Tiffany & Co., wanting
only their own name engraved on the movement and case, and not that of Audemars
Piguet.
It is interesting to note
that between 1894 and 1899, a mere 1,208 watches were produced. Among these
were some of the most sophisticated timepieces ever made, including the legendary "Grande
Complication" series, which is still being produced today. Aside from
normal time indication, a Grande Complication timepiece offers minute repetition,
perpetual calendar, and chronograph.
At around this same time,
the retail operations in Geneva and London were transformed into full-service
branches where watches were not only serviced but also assembled. By 1914,
Audemars Piguet launched a project to develop a watch so complicated that
it would take six years of continuous production before the watch could be
delivered to the importers Guignard & Golay in London.
The watch in question
was a pocket watch with two dials and a one-minute tourbillon mechanism.
As well as a tourbillon, this double dial Lepine, gold watch included a minute
repeater, a chronograph with 60-minute and 12-hour counters, perpetual calendar
with displays which "jump" at midnight, display of the leap year
cycle, the "age" and phases of the moon, and power reserve display.
The second face showed an additional 24 hours based on the sidereal hour,
moving a pair of independent hands. A special system connected to this gear-train
makes it possible to see the changes in the London sky at any time of the
day or night, through an oval-shaped opening in the rear dial. The sky is
represented by 315 stars engraved on a plate of gold, enameled in blue. The
stars, with their respective names, are all clearly visible.
Unfortunately, it was
the last triumph for the founding partners. Audemars died in 1918. The following
year, so did Edward Piguet.
After the founders' death,
Audemars Piguet continued to prosper, establishing several technical milestones
with the creation of the world's smallest minute repeater watch, having a
diameter of just 15.8 millimeters; the debut of a Hunter Model (hinged-lid
pocket watch) with a jumping second hand, also featuring a barometer, quarter
repeater, independent second hand, the date and day of the week; and in 1925,
another first: the world's thinnest pocket watch measuring just 1.32 millimeters.
The year 1928 also saw the development of the world's first skeletonized
pocketwatch.
Needless to say, then
as now, Audemars Piguet was considered one of the finest watch manufacturers
in the world. Business boomed, as did the world economy. Customers of Audemars
Piguet included such prestigious jewelers as Gubelin, Tiffany & Co.,
Cartier and Bulgari. Unfortunately, the company's success ground to a shocking
halt in 1929 when only 737 watches were sold. By contrast, nearly 2,000 watches
had been sold in 1920. With the stock market crash in 1929 and the subsequent
Depression, there were suddenly very few customers for expensive watches.
Like other Swiss watch companies, Audemars Piguet was forced to layoff most
of its workforce, until hitting rock bottom in 1932, when just two watches
were produced.
Despite the hard times,
the company bounced back following World War II, thanks to the success of
its chronographs and ultra-thin (the famous nine-ligne calibre 2003) dress
watches.
The 1950's and 1960's
saw a major rebound in the firm's sales. In 1967, in cooperation with Jaeger
LeCoultre, a new record for the thinnest (2.45 mm) automatic movement, with
a centrally placed rotor of 21-carat gold, was established. Just three years
later, in 1970, the watchmakers of Audemars Piguet premiered the world's
thinnest movement (3.05 mm) to include date display and a central rotor made
of gold. The year 1972, of course, marked the debut of what has become the
signature model for Audemars Piguet, the "Royal Oak".
Designed by the legendary
watchmaker Gerald Genta, its octagonal shape, steel edges and the use of
prominent hexagonal screws as a design feature strike a perfect balance between
power and elegance. Worthy of its name, the Royal Oak has since become a
legend. Its octagonal design, originally produced only in high-grade steel,
took the breath away even of many professionals. However, when the Royal
Oak was unveiled at the 1972 European watchmaking fair in Basel with a price
tag of just 3,300 SFr. -- unheard of for a watch bearing the Audemars Piguet
name -- its success was beyond even its creators' expectations!
In 1993, the company museum,
housed in the original workshop of Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet, was
established. This museum, a tribute to the company's visionary founders,
allows watch enthusiasts to discover Audemars Piguet technology "from
A to Z." Its exhibits retrace the key stages in the company's history,
and show many of the creations that made Audemars Piguet famous, including
the Grande Complication. As well as its unique collection of antique watches,
and in particular of watch complications, this very unusual museum enables
visitors to see the intricacy and precision required in horology, by observing
two master watchmakers at work in the modern Audemars Piguet atelier which
is a permanent feature of the museum.
That same year, a new
model in the Royal Oak collection premiered: the Royal Oak Offshore, which
is water resistant to a depth of 10 atmospheres. The Offshore model offers
following functions: chronograph to 1/5 second, tachymeter, 30-minute counter,
12-hour counter, date display, seconds display, automatic movement with central
rotor in 21-carat gold.
Three years later, in
1996, a wristwatch version of the famous "Grand Complication" premiered
at Basel. More than 600 components are contained in an integrated movement
that does not exceed 8.5 mm in height. It is a technical marvel that marries
old-fashioned craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, such as computer-aided
design (CAD). It was also in 1996 that Audemars Piguet embarked on a new
era, becoming one of the first major watch companies to represent itself
on the Internet with its official Web site.
Today, Audemars Piguet
remains one of the most prestigious watchmakers in the world -- yet despite
the company's enormous success (AP even owns 40% of Jaeger-LeCoultre), every
watch is still made by hand the old-fashioned way - one at a time. Today,
along with Patek Phillipe (PP) and Vacheron Constantin (VC), AP is considered
to be one of the "big-three" as one of the finest watches in the
world.
