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Two names for a great adventure
n 1875, two young men passionate about
Haute Horlogerie — Jules-Louis Audemars and
Edward-August Piguet — decided to pool their skills
to design and produce watches with complications
in the Vallée de Joux, the cradle of Haute
Horlogerie. Determination, imagination and
discipline led them to instant success. A
branch in Geneva was their next move in about
1885 and new commercial links were forged
at the 1889 Paris World Exposition, where
they exhibited complication pocket watches.
The Audemars Piguet factory continued to
expand as the years went by. Its creations
represented major milestones in the history
of Haute Horlogerie, like the first minute
repeater wristwatch in 1892 and the smallest
five-minute repeater movement ever
made in 1915.
From 1918 onwards, the founders
passed the reins of the business onto
their sons, who in turn perfected
their expertise in manufacturing
men's and ladies' wristwatches as
well as designing new sophisticated,
ultra-thin movements. Perseverance
and initiative were the watchwords : while the Wall
Street crash in 1929 was a bitter blow, the company
directors were soon designing so-called skeleton
watches before embarking on chronograph production.
But this new momentum was abruptly interrupted by
the Second World War. Re-organisation was necessary
in the aftermath of the conflict. The factory focused
on creating top-of-the-range items in keeping with its
tradition of innovation. A strategy that would
prove its worth, especially since it was backed
by outstanding creative daring.
Audemars Piguet continued to build on
its now international reputation with
creative designs. 1972 saw the launch of
the Royal Oak, the first, immediately
successful high-quality sports watch
in steel, followed in 1986 by the first
ultra-thin tourbillon wristwatch with
automatic winding. The creative spirit of
the Manufacture has not faltered since,
offering aesthetically original time-
keepers with outstanding movements.
Thus it brought watches with complications
back into fashion at the end of the 1980s,
launching its extraordinary Tradition
d’Excellence collection in 1999. All the
signs of a bold spirit rooted firmly in
tradition and auguring well for the future.
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