Audemars Piguet watch repair

Audemars Piguet has been a leading Jura valley institution in the watch industry since their founding in 1875 and is just as much at the forefront of horological advancement and style innovation today as it was then. Audemars Piguet is still showcasing amazing designs desired by many; at Baselworld 2016, they showcased the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double-Balanced Wheel Openworked watch, a watch known for its ground-breaking movement. It stacks two balance wheels on top of each other to enhance chronometric stability as they offset each other to aid precision timekeeping.

Audemars Piguet came to be in the Vallée de Joux in the Jura mountains of Switzerland, an area that ticks to the tune of complicated watch mechanisms and movements. Jules Louis Audemars and Edward August Piguet founded the company together, both coming from families with strong horological pedigrees and traditions. The traditions started in the 18th century when, during winter, the farmers and villagers of the Valleé de Joux would turn to watchmaking during the long winters. The geographical location of the region offers iron oxide and forests, allowing the iron to be produced, perfect for watchmaking.

Audemars Piguet was founded in 1875 in the village of Le Brassus. The then 23-year-old Jules-Louis Audemars asked his childhood friend Edward-Auguste Piguet, then 21, to establish a workshop and produce watch movements. The two started supplying watchmakers and soon had success with their customers.

From the beginning, both Jules-Louis and Edward-Auguste showed an interest in complex mechanisms and precision. Thanks to their family upbringings, they had developed the skill sets – as well as possessing the passion – necessary to create sophisticated tools and push the boundaries of mechanical possibilities. Even as a child, Jules-Louis would craft control mechanisms for complicated watches.

Initially providing movements for other companies, the pair quickly realised that they could set up their own watchmakers and sell whole watches as they had all the necessary tools and knowledge to do so. The couple split their work, with Jules-Louis focussing on producing and assembling movements while Edward-August ensured the regulation of the completed movements. This Jules-Louis became a craftsman of movements, and Edward-August became a finisher, one of the most essential jobs in horology. A finisher is a watchmaker who performs the final checks and regulations of the timepiece to ensure its accuracy and precision, as well as adding the final touches to the escapement.

As the company grew, the roles changes. Jules-Louis designed movements, created watches, and dealt with the technical responsibilities and managed the production and technical side of the business. Edward-August focussed on sales and handled the company finances.

On 17th December 1881, “Audemars Piguet et Cie” was officially founded in Le Brassus. In 1882, they presented their first complicated watches; fob watches with perpetual calendars and minute repeaters. Since this year, members of both the Audemars and Piguet families have been on the board of directors, therefore always been involved directly or indirectly involved in the running of the company.

1889 saw the opening of the first branch of Audemars Piguet in Geneva. The business began to rapidly grow and prosper, becoming one of the largest employers in the Vaud area. The continued growth saw Audemars Piguet open a new factory to accommodate its workers in 1907. This favourable period, however, was offset by the growing unrest in Europe and eventually by the outbreak of the First World War.

Audemars Piguet continued production through the First World War, presenting its Grande Complication in 1915 which featured 400 pieces. In the same year, the company created the smallest five-minute repeater movement. In 1918, Jules-Edwards passed away, and a year later, his lifelong friend Edward-August also passed. Their places were taken by their sons Paul-Louis Audemars and Paul-Edward Piguet.

The 20’s saw the company produce a sophisticated fob watch comprised of 16 complications. A year later, the first jumping-hour wristwatch emerged from the company workshops, and in 1925 they created the slimmest ever wristwatch. The great depression was on the horizon, however, and for several years, the company suffered as the stock market crashed, and consumers could not afford luxury watches.

Through the decades, Audemars Piguet continued to innovate and advance the areas of horology.

By the 70s however, the company realised it needed a change. Receiving feedback from the Italian market on the interest in steel watches, the company developed what is now its iconic watch: The Royal Oak.

The Royal Oak was the masterpiece of Gérald Genta, one of Audemars Piguet’s top watch craftsmen. Managing Director Georges Golay called him on the eve of the 1972 annual European watchmaking fair in Basel, telling that the Italian market was expecting an “unprecedented steel watch”. Golay needed a steel watch to present and so, in less than a day, Genta invented the Royal Oak, now Audemar Piguet’s most iconic watch and top seller. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Audemars Piguet continues to push boundaries in the horological world, regularly producing world firsts and watches of the highest quality. It also remains one of the few watchmakers still in the hands of the founding companies, as opposed to being owned by parent companies.