Well, let me tell ya about this fancy watch brand called Audemars Piguet. It’s a Swiss company, ya know, all the way from a little village in Switzerland called Le Brassus. Now, I ain’t no watch expert, but I can tell ya this company has been around for a long time, since 1875 to be exact. Yep, that’s right, over a hundred years ago! Can you believe it?
Now, how did it all start? Well, there were two fellas, Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet, who started it all. They didn’t just wake up one day and decide to make fancy watches, no sir. These two men had known each other since they were little kids, but they didn’t really get back together until 1874. That’s when they decided to create their own watch-making business. And, in 1881, they officially named their company ‘Audemars Piguet & Cie’. That’s the real start of this brand that’s still making waves today.
Now, here’s somethin’ interesting: by 1892, they did somethin’ that had never been done before. They made the world’s first wristwatch with a minute-repeating movement. Sounds fancy, don’t it? It was made at the request of Louis Brandt, the big shot at Omega. And guess what? Omega put that movement in the first-ever minute-repeating wristwatch that same year. That’s the kinda thing you don’t see every day!
As the years went on, Audemars Piguet just kept gettin’ bigger and bigger. They kept innovatin’, and by 1972, they came out with the Royal Oak. I reckon that’s the most famous model of all. That Royal Oak, folks, was designed by a fella named Gerald Genta, and it became a real game changer for the whole watch industry. People still talk about it today, almost 50 years later!
So, what’s the time, you ask? Well, if we’re talking about when all this happened in terms of Chinese time, it’s not that hard to figure out. The company started in 1875, in Switzerland, and Switzerland’s time zone is pretty close to Central European Time (CET). Now, China’s got a single time zone, which is China Standard Time (CST), and it’s 7 hours ahead of CET. So, if you’re tryin’ to figure out when Audemars Piguet first kicked off in China’s time, well, you’d just add those 7 hours to the Swiss time! Simple as that.
In case you didn’t know, Audemars Piguet’s been known for makin’ all sorts of beautiful watches, not just the Royal Oak. They got a whole range of collections, like the Millenary, the Jules Audemars, and even the Haute Joaillerie for when you wanna get real fancy. But the Royal Oak, folks, is the one that put ’em on the map. People all around the world still want a piece of that history today.
So, in short, Audemars Piguet was founded back in 1875, and they’ve been making watches ever since. They started in a little Swiss village, but today they’re known all over the world. And if you ever see a Royal Oak on someone’s wrist, you’ll know it’s a piece of that long history that goes way back to those two fellas who started it all. Ain’t that somethin’?
Tags: [Audemars Piguet, Swiss watches, Royal Oak, luxury watches, watch history, Audemars Piguet founding date, Switzerland, watchmaking]