34
35
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 designs mark the
milestones of Haute Horlogerie, like the fi rst
minute repeater wristwatch in 1892
and the smallest fi ve-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 wristwatches for
gentlemen and ladies and designed new
sophisticated, ultra-fl at movements.
Audemars Piguet was soon the undisputed specialist in
jump hour watches. Perseverance and initiative were the
watchwords ; the Wall Street crash in 1929 was a bitter
blow, but 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 confl ict. The
factory focused on creating top-of-the-range
items in keeping with its tradition of innovation.
A strategy that would prove its worth, the more
so that it was backed up 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 fi rst, immediately
successful high-quality sports watch in
steel, followed in 1986 by the fi rst ultra-
fl at tourbillon wristwatch with automatic
winding. The factory’s creative spirit has
not faltered since, offering aesthetically
original timekeepers 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. In
2006, Audemars Piguet is presenting the
fi fth item (Calibre 2899) in this exclusive series ; oval in
shape (
Millenary
), it features a linear reading perpetual
calendar with power reserve indicator and dead seconds
hand, a new escapement with revolutionary effi ciency,
no need for lubrication and so much more. All the signs
of a bold spirit rooted fi rmly in tradition. All of which
promises well for the future.
1 Intr
oduction
Eng
lish
I
