Audemars Piguet 2326 Instructions For Use Manual - page 6
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1. Intr
oduction
Eng
lis
h
I
Two names for a great adventure
n 1875, two young men passionate about
Haute Horlogerie — Jules-Louis Audemars and
Edward-August Piguet — decided to pool their skills
to design and produce watches with complications
in the Vallée de Joux, the cradle of Haute
Horlogerie. Determination, imagination and
discipline led them to instant success. A
branch in Geneva was their next move in about
1885 and new commercial links were forged
at the 1889 Paris World Exposition, where
they exhibited complication pocket watches.
The Audemars Piguet factory continued to
expand as the years went by. Its creations
represented major milestones in the history of
Haute Horlogerie, like the first minute repeater
wristwatch in 1892 and the smallest
five-minute repeater movement ever
made in 1915.
From 1918 onwards, the founders
passed the reins of the business onto
their sons, who in turn perfected their
expertise in manufacturing men's and
ladies' wristwatches as well as designing
new sophisticated, ultra-thin movements. Perseverance
and initiative were the watchwords : while the Wall
Street crash in 1929 was a bitter blow, the company
directors were soon designing so-called skeleton
watches before embarking on chronograph production.
But this new momentum was abruptly interrupted by
the Second World War. Re-organisation was necessary
in the aftermath of the conflict. The factory focused
on creating top-of-the-range items in keeping with its
tradition of innovation. A strategy that would
prove its worth, especially since it was backed
by outstanding creative daring.
Audemars Piguet continued to build on its
now international reputation with creative
designs. 1972 saw the launch of the
Royal
Oak
, the first, immediately successful
high-quality sports watch in steel, followed
in 1986 by the first ultra-thin tourbillon
wristwatch with automatic winding. The
creative spirit of the Manufacture has
not faltered since, offering aesthetically
original timekeepers with outstanding
movements. Thus it brought watches with
complications back into fashion at the end
of the 1980s, launching its extraordinary
Tradition d’Excellence
collection in 1999.
All the signs of a bold spirit rooted firmly in
tradition and auguring well for the future.