Audemars Piguet (watch brand)

Audemars Piguet is a Swiss luxury watch company founded in 1875 by Edward-Auguste Piguet and Jules-Louis Audemars, residents of Le Brassus. 23-year-old Jules-Louis Audemars, together with 21-year-old Edvard-Auguste Piguet, decided to start their own business in the Swiss village of Valais de Joux. The company was named "Audemars, Piguet et Cie". Jules-Louis Audemars invested in the production of 18 complicated watch movements of his own manufacture, while Edward-Auguste Piguet invested 10,000 Swiss francs in the authorized capital of the enterprise. By agreement of the parties, Audemars became technical, and Piguet became financial directors of the enterprise. This distribution of powers between representatives of the two surnames remains to this day. The Audemars Piguet trademark was registered in 1882. In the first year of its existence, the company created the "Grand Complication" watch, whose numerous functions included a minute repeater, a perpetual calendar, a moon phase calendar, and a two-hand chronograph. 
In 1889 the company opened its first branch in Geneva. In the same year, the popularity of Audemars Piguet watches increased after the triumph of luxury watches presented at the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1907, the company expanded and a new factory was built, which subsequently employed seventy people. In 1911, the first multifunctional jeweled wristwatch was produced. 
During the First World War, the company faced various difficulties, but already in 1925 the company regained lost ground by creating the thinnest pocket watch with a thickness of 1.32 mm, releasing the brand's first women's jewelry watch and starting the production of built-in chronographs. With the outbreak of the Second World War, there is again a decline in production. 
In 1949, Audemars Piguet watches took part for the first time at an exhibition in Basel. From 1962 to 1987 the company was run by George Golay. The company's products soon gained international recognition. In 1967, a new record was set - the thinnest self-winding watch movement with a thickness of 2.45 mm and a 21-carat gold rotor was produced. In the same years, the Royal Oak watch was created, the first professional sports watch made of steel, which is still the flagship of the company's lineup. This model was designed by Gerald Genta, who later separated from the company and founded his own watchmaking under the Gerald Genta brand. In 2014, the Audemars Piguet brand was valued at 728 million Swiss francs, which put it in tenth place in the ranking of brands of Swiss watch manufacturers. The headquarters of the company is located in the Swiss city of Le Brassus.
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