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The Audemars Piguet story begins in 1875 when twenty-three-year-old watchmaker Jules Audemars and future partner Edward-August Piguet, just twenty-one years of age, met in the Vallee de Joux. Both had learned the watchmaker's trade after finishing public school in their hometown of Le Brassus by training at the bench. They had returned to the Vallee de Joux to find jobs in the local watchmaking industry.<

After the founders' death, Audemars Piguet continued to prosper, establishing several technical milestones with the creation of the world's smallest minute repeater watch, having a diameter of just 15.8 millimeters; the debut of a Hunter Model (hinged-lid pocket watch) with a jumping second hand, also featuring a barometer, quarter repeater, independent second hand, the date and day of the week; and in 1925, another first: the world's thinnest pocket watch, measuring just 1.32 millimeters. The year 1928 also saw the development of the world's first skeletonized pocketwatch.<

Unfortunately, the company's success ground to a shocking halt in 1929 when only 737 watches were sold. By contrast, nearly 2,000 watches had been sold in 1920. With the stock market crash in 1929 and the subsequent Depression, there were suddenly very few customers for expensive watches. Like other Swiss watch companies, Audemars Piguet was forced to lay off most of its workforce, before hitting rock bottom in 1932, when just two watches were produced

Despite the hard times, the company bounced back following World War II, thanks to the success of its chronographs and ultra-thin (the famous nine-ligne calibre 2003) dress watches.<

The 1950s and 1960s saw a major rebound in the firm's sales. In 1967, in cooperation with Jaeger LeCoultre, a new record for the thinnest (2.45 mm) automatic movement, with a centrally placed rotor of 21 carat gold, was established. Just three years later, in 1970, the watchmakers of Audemars Piguet premiered the world's thinnest movement (3.05 mm) to include date display and a central rotor made of gold. The year 1972, of course, marked the debut of what has become the signature model for Audemars Piguet, the "Royal Oak".

Today, Audemars Piguet remains one of the most prestigious watchmakers in the world -- and one of the few that is still family owned. Yet despite the company's enormous success, every watch is still made by hand the old-fashioned way -- one at a time. Today, along with Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet is considered to be one of the "big three" as one of the finest watches in the world.