Brands & history

Hans Wilsdorf, at just 24 years old, founded the company with his brother-in-law Alfred Davis. They initially imported movements and placed them in watch cases.

A Rolex wristwatch was sent to the School of Horology in Bienne and awarded the first ever precision certificate for a wristwatch.

The Oyster case featured a screw-down crown, bezel and caseback, creating a hermetically sealed environment. Mercedes Gleitze swam the English Channel wearing one to prove its water resistance.

Rolex invented the modern automatic winding system using a perpetual rotor that swings freely with wrist movement. This became the blueprint for nearly all automatic watches today.

The Datejust introduced the cyclops lens over the date window, a Rolex signature still used today. It was created to celebrate the company's 40th anniversary.

Designed specifically for divers, the Submariner featured a rotating bezel to track dive time. It became the archetype for all modern dive watches.

Pan American Airways requested a watch for their pilots crossing multiple time zones. The GMT-Master's 24-hour hand and rotating bezel allowed simultaneous reading of two time zones.

Named after the famous Daytona Beach race track, the chronograph featured a tachymeter scale on the bezel for measuring average speeds. Paul Newman's personal Daytona sold for $17.8 million in 2017.

Louis Brandt opened a small workshop assembling key-wound pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen.

Omega introduced interchangeable component parts, allowing any watchmaker to service the movement. This standardized approach was revolutionary for the era.

Omega has served as the official timekeeper at nearly every Olympic Games since Los Angeles 1932, developing specialized timing equipment for sporting events.

Omega released three professional watches simultaneously: the Speedmaster for racing, Seamaster for diving, and Railmaster for scientists working near magnetic fields.

After rigorous testing against watches from Rolex, Longines and Hamilton, NASA selected the Omega Speedmaster as the official watch for all manned space missions.

Buzz Aldrin's Omega Speedmaster Professional became the first watch worn on the lunar surface. Neil Armstrong left his inside the Lunar Module as a backup timer.

Developed by master watchmaker George Daniels, the Co-Axial escapement dramatically reduces friction in the movement, extending service intervals and improving long-term accuracy.

Polish immigrant Antoni Patek began making pocket watches in Geneva. In 1845, he partnered with French inventor Adrien Philippe, who had created the keyless winding and setting system.

This eliminated the need for a separate key to wind and set watches. The crown at 3 o'clock became the universal standard, and Patek Philippe acquired the patent.

Patek Philippe crafted a wristwatch for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary. At a time when pocket watches dominated, this was a radical departure from convention.

This watch automatically adjusted for months of different lengths and leap years. It would remain accurate for over a century without manual date correction.

Inspired by Bauhaus principles, the Calatrava established the blueprint for the round dress watch: thin profile, clean dial, and understated elegance.

Designed in five minutes on a napkin during Baselworld, the Nautilus shocked the industry with its porthole-shaped case and integrated bracelet. It created the luxury sports watch segment.

With 33 complications, 1,728 components, and taking nine years to develop, the Calibre 89 remains one of the most complex mechanical watches ever created.

Childhood friends Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet established their workshop in Le Brassus, a remote valley that would become the heart of Swiss high-end watchmaking.

While minute repeaters existed in pocket watches, Audemars Piguet miniaturized the complex chiming mechanism to fit on the wrist — a technical marvel of the era.

At the height of the quartz crisis, AP released an expensive steel sports watch with an octagonal bezel and integrated bracelet. It was initially met with skepticism but became their most iconic model.

Designed by Emmanuel Gueit as a bolder, more muscular version of the Royal Oak. At 42mm it was considered enormous at the time, but it predicted the modern trend for larger watches.

Audemars Piguet developed a new case construction that amplifies the sound of minute repeaters while maintaining water resistance — a combination previously thought impossible.

Jones combined American industrial precision with Swiss craftsmanship, choosing Schaffhausen for its hydropower from the Rhine — making IWC the only major watchmaker in eastern Switzerland.

Decades before the digital era, IWC produced pocket watches showing hours and minutes through jumping numerals in apertures — an idea revived in 2018 for the brand's 150th anniversary.

Built with antimagnetic escapement, shatterproof glass, and a rotating bezel with index for noting takeoff times. It set the template for every pilot's watch that followed.

Designed for engineers and scientists working near strong magnetic fields, the Ingenieur used a soft-iron inner case. Gérald Genta later restyled it in 1976 into the iconic SL reference.

Klaus designed a perpetual calendar adjusted entirely through the crown, eliminating the recessed correctors found on every other perpetual. Programmed to run correctly until the year 2499.

Built for IWC's 125th anniversary with 21 complications including minute repeater, perpetual calendar, rattrapante chronograph, and tourbillon. Limited to 125 pieces.

Edouard Heuer opened his workshop at age 20. From the beginning, he focused on chronographs and timing instruments, filing his first patent just two years later.

Designed for automobiles and aircraft, this 12-hour chronograph allowed drivers to track elapsed time. It established Heuer's connection to motorsport that continues today.

Named after the dangerous Carrera Panamericana race in Mexico, Jack Heuer designed a clean, highly legible chronograph with no extraneous markings — perfect for reading at speed.

In a fierce race against Zenith and Seiko, Heuer (in partnership with Hamilton-Buren and Dubois Dépraz) unveiled the Calibre 11 — one of the world's first automatic chronographs.

The Monaco's bold square case and left-side crown made it instantly recognizable. Steve McQueen wore it in the film 'Le Mans,' cementing its place in pop culture history.

Techniques d'Avant Garde (TAG), a Luxembourg holding company, acquired Heuer. The brand became TAG Heuer, combining Swiss watchmaking heritage with modern marketing and Formula 1 partnerships.

At 24, Jean-Marc Vacheron took on his first apprentice — the document that survives is the oldest record of a Geneva watchmaker's workshop and the start of an unbroken 270-year production run.

Constantin's famous credo — 'Do better if possible, and that is always possible' — became the maison's guiding principle and remains inscribed in every workshop.

Derived from the shape of a regulator component used to control mainspring tension, the cross is now one of the most recognized symbols in horology.

Created for the 200th anniversary, the ultra-thin hand-wound caliber remained the world's thinnest for decades and defined VC's mastery of slim watchmaking.

Sculpted from a single gold ingot over 6,000 hours, the Kallista sold for $5 million and signalled VC's haute joaillerie ambitions.

A one-off pocket watch built over eight years for a single collector. It includes a Hebrew perpetual calendar, double retrograde rattrapante, and a celestial chart.

Backed by a state loan, Lange trained local apprentices and turned an impoverished mining village into one of Europe's two great watchmaking centres.

Production halts for four decades. Walter Lange, Ferdinand's great-grandson, escapes to West Germany and waits out the Cold War.

On 7 December 1990 — one day after reunification became legal — Walter Lange and Günter Blümlein refounded the house in Glashütte from scratch.

An instant icon. The asymmetric dial obeys the golden ratio and the large date — borrowed from Dresden's Semper Opera clock — became the brand's calling card.

Grande and petite sonnerie, minute repeater, split-seconds chronograph with jumping seconds, and perpetual calendar with moonphase. Price: €1.92 million.

Mille's stated brief: a Formula 1 car for the wrist. The skeletonized tourbillon broke every convention of luxury Swiss watchmaking and became an immediate cult object.

Aerospace materials migrate to the wrist. The featherweight case and exposed architecture became the Richard Mille visual language.

Proved a tourbillon could survive professional tennis. The athlete partnership model — Nadal, Alonso, McIlroy — became core to the brand's identity.

Required over 1,000 hours of machining per case. Only five pieces were made; the model launched RM's now-signature sapphire grail watches.

Co-developed with Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi, the watch reclaimed the ultra-thin record from Bulgari at a price of $1.88 million.

A self-taught mechanic, LeCoultre invented the Millionomètre in 1844 — the first instrument to measure to within a micron, two decades before the metric system was standardised.

Jaeger challenged Swiss makers to produce ultra-thin movements; LeCoultre answered. Their collaboration also supplied movements to Cartier, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin.

Still in production today, the 98-part movement powered Queen Elizabeth II's coronation watch. Nothing smaller has ever been mass-produced.

Designed at the request of British army officers in India who kept smashing their crystals. The Art Deco rectangular case is among the most recognisable in horology.

A hammer strikes a pin on the caseback, producing the unique 'buzzing bee' sound that became the model's signature.

Within a decade, his clients included Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI, and Napoleon Bonaparte. He is widely regarded as the greatest watchmaker who ever lived.

Used an oscillating weight that wound the mainspring as the wearer walked. The principle remains the basis of every automatic watch made today.

A flexible mounting for the balance pivot that prevented damage from drops. Every modern shock-protection system descends from this idea.

An escapement caged inside a rotating carriage to average out positional errors caused by gravity. Two centuries later it remains horology's most prestigious complication.

An oblong repeater on a wristlet of hair and gold thread. The reine de Naples line still references this commission today.

Built over five years as a school project. He was 26. The piece announced an independent voice the industry would not fully recognise for another 15 years.

The first series — the Tourbillon Souverain — was limited to 20 pieces, all sold by reservation. Demand has outstripped supply ever since.

Solves a problem Breguet wrestled with on pocket clocks: two oscillators that physically influence each other through their common base plate, improving precision.

Every F.P. Journe movement is made of solid 18-karat gold — a hallmark unique in serial production and visible through the display caseback.

Considered the most complicated wristwatch ever produced by an independent. Only one piece per year.

Operating from his farmhouse in Villeret, Blancpain's registration in the local rolls makes the firm the oldest watch brand by name in continuous existence.

The bumper rotor design predated the perpetual rotor by five years and proved that self-winding could leave the laboratory for the wrist.

Built for French combat divers under Lt. Bob Maloubier. Its rotating timing bezel, screw-down crown and 91-metre rating set the template Rolex would follow weeks later with the Submariner.

Biver's slogan — 'Since 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be.' — became the rallying cry of the mechanical revival.

Tourbillon, minute repeater, perpetual calendar, moonphase, split-seconds chronograph and equation of time. Only 30 pieces planned; production took 11 years per watch.

Originally a jeweller, Cartier counted Empress Eugénie and Princess Mathilde among early clients. Watchmaking would come later — but design came first.

Designed for aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who complained he could not read his pocket watch while piloting. The square bezel with exposed screws remains a Cartier signature.

Louis Cartier presented the prototype to General Pershing in 1918. The Tank's brancards (sides) echo the tank's treads — a piece of design history on every wrist that wears one.

A sealed case for a brand previously known for elegant, water-vulnerable dress designs. It quietly proved Cartier could engineer as well as decorate.

After decades sourcing movements from Jaeger-LeCoultre and others, Cartier built a 30,000-m² manufacture and reasserted itself as a Haute Horlogerie maison with calibres like the 9452 MC tourbillon.

Bautte's atelier — later inherited by Constant Girard — pioneered vertical integration, making every component under one roof, an extreme rarity for the era.

The union joined two watchmaking families and consolidated a manufacture that still produces almost every component, including hairsprings, in-house.

The three parallel arrow-shaped bridges turned the movement architecture into the dial itself — a radical idea later considered the first truly 'designed' movement.

Two thousand pieces commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm I after his officers struggled to coordinate manoeuvres with pocket watches. Arguably the first serial production of wristwatches.

The Gyromatic HF beat at 10 vibrations per second, dramatically improving precision. The industry standard 4Hz movements still descend from this work.

Hired by the Sandoz Family Foundation to restore its collection of Breguet, Vaucanson and Maillardet pieces. The work made him one of the world's foremost authorities on historical movements.

Vertical integration achieved within five years — including dial-making (Quadrance et Habillage), case-making (Les Artisans Boîtiers) and movements (Vaucher).

Tuned to the four notes of the Westminster chime. Considered among the finest-sounding repeaters of the modern era, with bespoke acoustic case treatment.

Parmigiani's sister manufacture quietly became one of the most respected high-end movement suppliers in Switzerland — work usually attributed to JLC or Renaud et Papi.

The integrated-bracelet line, with a fluted platinum bezel and ultra-thin micro-rotor calibre, repositioned the brand as the discreet alternative to Patek Nautilus and AP Royal Oak.

At 19, Piaget began supplying high-precision movements to other Swiss watchmakers. The farmhouse atelier in the Jura mountains remains the spiritual home of the brand.

An engineering triumph that launched Piaget's ultra-thin obsession and the era of jewellery-watch crossovers it still dominates today.

Held the world record for 18 years. Used a micro-rotor inset into the movement rather than sitting above it — a Piaget solution copied across the industry.

Released into the post-Royal-Oak boom, the Polo's gadroon links blended bracelet and case into a single sculpted gold ribbon. Andy Warhol famously collected it.

Reclaimed the ultra-thin record. The case is the movement: bridges and wheels are integrated directly into the caseback, with the crown set flush.

The first watch paired an 18-karat gold case with a rubber strap — an unthinkable combination at the time. It sold out and seeded the entire 'luxury sport on rubber' category.

Biver's brief: combine improbable materials — gold and rubber, ceramic and carbon, sapphire and titanium. Revenues grew tenfold in five years.

Layered case construction, exposed screws, and chronograph pushers framed by ceramic. Won Best Design at the GPHG and became the brand's defining product.

Developed with EPFL, the alloy fuses 24-karat gold into boron carbide ceramic. It rates 1,000 Vickers — harder than almost any metal short of tungsten.

The barrels sit horizontally across the dial like a row of pistons — a Hublot trademark of putting mechanical drama on full display.