Audemars Piguet's history
In 1875, in the Swiss village of Le Brassus, two young men passionately dedicated to fine watchmaking, Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet, decided to unite their skills in order to design and produce watches with complex mechanisms. Their determination, imagination and discipline were soon to earn them noteworthy success. Around 1885, they set up a subsidiary in Geneva and in 1889 established new commercial relations at the Universal Exposition in Paris where they presented some complex pocket-watches. While the Manufacture Audemars Piguet has developed considerably since then, the spirit of high standards, inventiveness and watchmaking passion that drove its founder still persists, daily guiding the company in its choices. Today, Audemars Piguet remains the oldest Manufacture of Haute Horlogerie never to have left the hands of its founding families. More than 700 employees worldwide, including 550 on the three production sites located in Switzerland, and more than 24,000 watches produced each year, express its dynamism, its independence and its spirit of genuine creative daring.
1892 World première: Audemars Piguet develops and completes the first minute repeater wristwatch.
1899 A “Grande Complication” pocket-watch emerges from the Audemars Piguet work-shops. It is equipped with grand and small strike and minute repeater chiming on three gongs, with an alarm striking on independent gongs, perpetual calendar, deadbeat seconds, and chronograph with jumping seconds (fifth of a second indication,) and split-seconds hand.
1915 Audemars Piguet sets a world record that remains unmatched to this day, by creating the smallest five-minute repeater movement of all time.
1921 Audemars Piguet creates the first jumping-hour wristwatch driven by calibre HPVM10'''.
1946Thanks to calibre 9'''ML which is a mere 1.64 mm thick, Audemars Piguet creates the world's smallest hand-wound movement for a wristwatch.
1955 Introduction of the first Audemars Piguet wristwatch equipped with a perpetual calendar mechanism (calibre VZSSQP): this time-piece displays the “regular” irregularity of the months, while taking account of the leap years.
1972Completely overturning the existing codes of Haute Horlogerie, Audemars Piguet creates the Royal Oak (calibre 2121), the first high-end steel sports watch, instantly recognisable thanks to its guilloché dial, its octagonal bezel secured with eight hexagonal screws, and its integrated bracelet.
1986 A new world first: Audemars Piguet makes the first ultra-thin selfwinding tourbillon wristwatch (calibre 2870). The tourbillon carriage is the smallest ever made.
1989Audemars Piguet creates the Dual Time, the first wristwatch to display the time in a second time zone and yet driven by a single selfwinding movement (calibre 2229/2845).
1994 Whereas this mechanism had thus far only been integrated within pocket- watches, Audemars Piguet fits it within a wristwatch and presents the first hand-wound movement with grand and small strike and quarter repeater sounding on two gongs (calibre 2868).
1995The Manufacture adds a split-seconds chronograph to its Triple Complication launched in 1992, thus giving rise to the first “Grande Complication” selfwinding wristwatch (calibre 2885).
2000 Celebrating the 125th anniversary of the company founding, the Jules Audemars Dynamograph wristwatch (calibre 2891) is added to the Audemars Piguet Classic Collection. It is characterised by a new qualitative indication: that of the torque supplied by the mainspring.
2002For its 30th anniversary, the Royal Oak treats itself to the Concept watch. Its aesthetics are resolutely futurists; the materials used for its case, titanium and 602 alacrite, stem from cutting-edge technological research; and its original movement (calibre 2896) reaches new peaks of sophistication.
2004 Launch of the fourth piece in the Tradition d'Excellence Collection. Limited to 20 pieces, this Royal Oak hand-wound tourbillon chronograph has a double ten-day power-reserve indication and a 30-minute counter. The watch is equipped with the 2893 calibre. The caseback and the bracelet are made of platinum 950.
2005 Audemars Piguet presents the Edward Piguet Moss Agate Tourbillon. This tourbillon is the world's first watch to be equipped with a plate in moss agate, a natural semi-translucent mineral graced with a fine mottled pattern reminiscent of plant-life motifs.
For the future : Building on its international-scale success, Audemars Piguet is pursuing its development and its creative work, in the respect of the tradition and of the spirit of its founders.
In 1875, in the Swiss village of Le Brassus, two young men passionately dedicated to fine watchmaking, Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet, decided to unite their skills in order to design and produce watches with complex mechanisms. Their determination, imagination and discipline were soon to earn them noteworthy success. Around 1885, they set up a subsidiary in Geneva and in 1889 established new commercial relations at the Universal Exposition in Paris where they presented some complex pocket-watches. While the Manufacture Audemars Piguet has developed considerably since then, the spirit of high standards, inventiveness and watchmaking passion that drove its founder still persists, daily guiding the company in its choices. Today, Audemars Piguet remains the oldest Manufacture of Haute Horlogerie never to have left the hands of its founding families. More than 700 employees worldwide, including 550 on the three production sites located in Switzerland, and more than 24,000 watches produced each year, express its dynamism, its independence and its spirit of genuine creative daring.
1892 World première: Audemars Piguet develops and completes the first minute repeater wristwatch.
1899 A “Grande Complication” pocket-watch emerges from the Audemars Piguet work-shops. It is equipped with grand and small strike and minute repeater chiming on three gongs, with an alarm striking on independent gongs, perpetual calendar, deadbeat seconds, and chronograph with jumping seconds (fifth of a second indication,) and split-seconds hand.
1915 Audemars Piguet sets a world record that remains unmatched to this day, by creating the smallest five-minute repeater movement of all time.
1921 Audemars Piguet creates the first jumping-hour wristwatch driven by calibre HPVM10'''.
1946Thanks to calibre 9'''ML which is a mere 1.64 mm thick, Audemars Piguet creates the world's smallest hand-wound movement for a wristwatch.
1955 Introduction of the first Audemars Piguet wristwatch equipped with a perpetual calendar mechanism (calibre VZSSQP): this time-piece displays the “regular” irregularity of the months, while taking account of the leap years.
1972Completely overturning the existing codes of Haute Horlogerie, Audemars Piguet creates the Royal Oak (calibre 2121), the first high-end steel sports watch, instantly recognisable thanks to its guilloché dial, its octagonal bezel secured with eight hexagonal screws, and its integrated bracelet.
1986 A new world first: Audemars Piguet makes the first ultra-thin selfwinding tourbillon wristwatch (calibre 2870). The tourbillon carriage is the smallest ever made.
1989Audemars Piguet creates the Dual Time, the first wristwatch to display the time in a second time zone and yet driven by a single selfwinding movement (calibre 2229/2845).
1994 Whereas this mechanism had thus far only been integrated within pocket- watches, Audemars Piguet fits it within a wristwatch and presents the first hand-wound movement with grand and small strike and quarter repeater sounding on two gongs (calibre 2868).
1995The Manufacture adds a split-seconds chronograph to its Triple Complication launched in 1992, thus giving rise to the first “Grande Complication” selfwinding wristwatch (calibre 2885).
2000 Celebrating the 125th anniversary of the company founding, the Jules Audemars Dynamograph wristwatch (calibre 2891) is added to the Audemars Piguet Classic Collection. It is characterised by a new qualitative indication: that of the torque supplied by the mainspring.
2002For its 30th anniversary, the Royal Oak treats itself to the Concept watch. Its aesthetics are resolutely futurists; the materials used for its case, titanium and 602 alacrite, stem from cutting-edge technological research; and its original movement (calibre 2896) reaches new peaks of sophistication.
2004 Launch of the fourth piece in the Tradition d'Excellence Collection. Limited to 20 pieces, this Royal Oak hand-wound tourbillon chronograph has a double ten-day power-reserve indication and a 30-minute counter. The watch is equipped with the 2893 calibre. The caseback and the bracelet are made of platinum 950.
2005 Audemars Piguet presents the Edward Piguet Moss Agate Tourbillon. This tourbillon is the world's first watch to be equipped with a plate in moss agate, a natural semi-translucent mineral graced with a fine mottled pattern reminiscent of plant-life motifs.
For the future : Building on its international-scale success, Audemars Piguet is pursuing its development and its creative work, in the respect of the tradition and of the spirit of its founders.
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