Audemars Piguet

<!-- Deleted image removed: -->Audemars Piguet (AP) () is a manufacturer of prestige Swiss watches which compete with Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin.

Foundation

The roots of Audemars Piguet date back to 1874, when the 23-year-old Jules-Louis Audemars met Edward-Auguste Piguet, then only 21, at Vallée de Joux, which is considered to be the cradle of prestige watch-making. Their hometown was Le Brassus. When they graduated from school they went to Vallée de Joux to start working in their favorite field of watch manufacturing.

Thus Audemars started producing component parts for movements and Piguet got the job of a repasseur, whose job it was to make the final regulation of the timepiece. In 1875 they founded a firm later known as Audemars, Piguet et Cie.

Since 1882, members of the Audemars and Piguet families have always been on the board of directors and have thus directly or indirectly run the company.

Business

The business started with Audemars managing the production and technical part and Piguet focusing on sales, and success was not immediate. The Audemars Piguet trademark was registered in 1882, however it would be seven years later that the company was officially founded. At this point Audemars Piguet et Cie became one of the largest employers for watch-making in the whole of Vaud, southwestern Switzerland.

The company opened its first branch in Geneva in 1889, and began creating its own...
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