Audemars Piguet

Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet began working together in 1875 in Le Brassus, in the Vallée de Joux; the firm was formally registered as Audemars Piguet & Cie in 1881. From the outset it specialised in complicated movements — minute repeaters, perpetual calendars and chronographs — which it supplied to other houses as well as selling under its own name, and it remains owned by the founding families to this day.

Its defining model is the Royal Oak of 1972, designed by Gérald Genta: a steel watch with an octagonal bezel held by eight visible screws, an integrated bracelet and a "tapisserie" dial. The larger Royal Oak Offshore followed in 1993, and the Code 11.59 collection was introduced in 2019. The company still operates from Le Brassus, where its 1907 building remains the headquarters.