WATCH BRANDS by Paolo Gobbi
rand longevity is a subject of major interest and curiosity in the world of fine watchmaking. And, what is more, it can be considered from two different points of view. The first intrinsically regards the object itself: aside from being technological dinosaurs, the fabrication of the mechanical wristwatches produced today basically continues to be the same one for over a century, perhaps even two. If we were to compare the fabrication process to the means of transport, it would be as if we walked into a car dealer and found a horse-drawn buggy. Finally, the second concerns the extraordinary longevity of many renowned brands, whose history does not span in years or decades, but in centuries. It is difficult to imagine a similar result in any entrepreneurial business. We therefore decided to put together a brief history hitting the high notes and significant events of the watch brands featuring in the following pages, not for educational purposes – some of the manufacturers’ full detailed history would indeed require hundreds of pages – but rather to share with the reader the style and peculiarities that made them famous. A. LANGE & SÖHNE Founded in 1845, by Ferdinand Adolph Lange, a watchmaker born in Dresden. His refined pocket watches are still today very appreciated by collectors all over the world. After WWII, the watch manufacturer was confiscated and went out of business. However, in 1990, Ferdinand’s greatgrandson, Walter Lange, decided to reestablish the company once again. Currently, A. Lange & Söhne produces only a limited number of wristwatches per year, cased in gold or in platinum and exclusively equipped with in-house built hand decorated and hand mounted movements. Since its first collection presented in 1994, A. Lange & Söhne ranks amongst the world’s leading watch brands. Since then, Lange crafted iconic models such as the Lange 1 featuring the outsized date, the Zeitwerk featuring the jumping numerals, extraordinary complications such as the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar, the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater, the Tourbograph Perpetual and the Tourbillon «Pour le Mérite», which all perfectly reflect the revolutionary spirit of the Maison.
12 WINNING ICONS
AUDEMARS PIGUET In 1875, Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet, sharing the same passion for fine horology, founded the watch company together in Le Brassus. In 1882, they presented a minute repeater perpetual calendar chronograph pocket watch, followed by a perpetual calendar chronograph pocket watch with “Grande Sonnerie” and power reserve indication in 1885. In 1891, due to a minute repeater movement measuring a diameter of only 18mm, Audemars Piguet created the prerequisites for the production of wristwatches equipped with this complication – still today developed and regularly on the market. In 1972, the brand writes watch history with the Royal Oak, a timepiece that defined the design codes of dressy sport wristwatches. BLANCPAIN The history of Blancpain started long ago, but did not follow the conventional routes of Swiss watchmaking. At the beginning of the 18th century, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain grasped the potential of this new business activity. In 1735, he founded the Blancpain brand, setting up his first workshop on the upper floor of his house at Villeret. By recording his name in the property register of Villeret’s municipality, he built an establishment that was unconventional for those days. In 1815, his greatgrandson, Frédéric-Louis Blancpain, head of the family business at the time, updated the production methods and transformed the traditional workshop into an industrial company. Today, the watch production, one of Swatch Group’s crown jewels, is focused on the major complications: minute repeaters, tourbillon models, perpetual calendars, moon phases, flanked by sport models such as the Fifty Fathoms and the flyback chronographs. BREGUET In 1775, Abraham-Louis Breguet, an inventor and horologist born in Neuchâtel, opened his workshop in Paris, where he spent most of his productive life, full of important as well as diverse inventions. He began his career with a series of masterstrokes: the development of a self-winding perpetual movement, the introduction of a ‘sonnerie’ complication for repeating watches, and finally the pare-chute suspension, the first shock absorber