Rolex SA is a British-founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, the company registered Rolex as the brand name of its watches in 1908 and became Rolex Watch Co. Ltd. in 1915. After World War I, the company moved its base of operations to Geneva because of the unfavorable economy in the United Kingdom. In 1920, Hans Wilsdorf registered Montres Rolex SA in Geneva as the new company name ; it later became Rolex SA. Since 1960, the company has been owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust.
IWC International Watch Co. AG, also known as IWC Schaffhausen, is a Swiss watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Originally founded by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, IWC has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2000.
Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company formerly operated as La Generale Watch Co. until incorporating the name Omega in 1903, becoming Louis Brandt et Frère-Omega Watch & Co. In 1984, the company officially changed its name to Omega SA and opened its museum in Biel/Bienne to the public. Omega is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group.
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer, located in the Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Established in 1839, it is named after two of its founders, Antoni Patek and Adrien Philippe. Since 1932, the company has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland and remains the last family-owned independent watch manufacturer in Geneva. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. In 2001, it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. is an electronics company primarily known for its watches and is the core company of a Japanese global corporate group based in Nishitokyo, Tokyo, Japan. In addition to Citizen brand watches, it is the parent of American watch company Bulova, and is also known for manufacturing small electronics such as calculators.
Girard-Perregaux SA is a luxury Swiss watch manufacture with its origins dating back to 1791. Since 2011, the Swiss holding group of Girard-Perregaux, Sowind Group, has been a subsidiary of the French luxury group Kering. Headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the company opened the Girard-Perregaux Museum near its headquarters in Villa Marguerite in 1999.
Audemars Piguet Holding SA is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury watches and clocks, headquartered in Le Brassus, Switzerland. The company was founded by Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet in the Vallée de Joux in 1875, acquiring the name Audemars Piguet & Cie in 1881. The company has been family-owned since its founding.
Manufacture d'horlogerie is a French language term of horology that has also been adopted in the English language as a loanword. In horology, the term is usually encountered in its abbreviated form manufacture. This term is used when describing a wrist watch movement or watchworks fabricator which makes all or most of the parts required for its products in its own production facilities, as opposed to simply assembling watches using parts purchased from other firms.
The quartz crisis was the upheaval in the watchmaking industry caused by the advent of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, that largely replaced mechanical watches around the world. It caused a significant decline of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which chose to remain focused on traditional mechanical watches, while the majority of the world's watch production shifted to Japanese companies such as Seiko, Citizen, and Casio which embraced the new electronic technology.
Montres Corum Sàrl, commonly referred to as Corum, is a Swiss watchmaker based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Canton of Neuchâtel. Founded in 1955, it makes high-quality and high-price watches, many of which are limited editions. The benchmark watch series for Corum is its "Admiral's Cup" series. The company is owned by Hong Kong-based Citychamp Watch & Jewellery Group Limited together with Eterna. Both of these Swiss watch companies are managed by a management committee composed by Yeznig Magdhessian, Soon Boon Chong & Maxime Ranzoni.
The J12 is a line of Swiss made luxury watches introduced in 1999 by French haute couture house Chanel. The J12 was launched in 1999 and is considered as a unisex watch. The watch was designed by the artistic director of the house, Jacques Hélleu, who found inspiration in the two worlds he loved most: automobiles and sailing. Chanel uses highly scratch-resistant ceramic for the watch's case and bracelet. Other materials are used as well, such as titanium and for one of the house's limited edition watches, sapphires were used to create the entirety of the bracelet and case.
Gérald Charles Genta was a Swiss watch designer and artist. He is known for his eponymous line of timepieces as well as his design work with other high-end watch manufacturers, including IWC, Omega SA, Universal Genève, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. Christie's auction house of New York has called Genta's work "the Fabergé of watches", while The Wall Street Journal has called them the "world's most complicated and pricey watches".
Universal Genève SA is a Swiss luxury watch company, founded in 1894 as Universal Watch. Since its beginnings, the company has produced complete watches with in-house movements, and throughout the 20th century, distributed many notable and important timepieces. Along with neighboring Geneva companies Audemars Piguet, Girard-Perregaux, Patek Philippe and Rolex, Universal is internationally regarded for its style of craftsmanship and manufacture. In addition, the brand also makes historical claim for creating the first-ever chronographic wristwatch in 1917.
Concord Watch Company is a Swiss luxury goods company that is part of the Movado group, which produces and distributes Movado, Ebel, Coach, and Hugo Boss-branded watches. Founded in 1908, Concord was purchased in 1970 by the North American Watch Company, which also distributed the Piaget and Corum lines of watches. From the late 1970s to the late 1980s, Concord produced luxury quartz watches. Flagship quartz models such as the Concord Centurion and Concord Delirium ranged from $2,000 to $20,000, surpassing the price of base automatic Rolex, Cartier and Omega wristwatches. By the 1990s, Concord watches fell out of style and grew obsolete amidst the rebranding of the company. While the brand still exists today, it never regained its market position nor visibility that it once had.
Jean-Claude Biver is a Luxembourgish-Swiss Watchseller, cheesemaker, and businessman previously serving as the chief executive officer (CEO) of TAG Heuer. From 2014 until 2018, he was the president of LVMH's watchmaking division until his retirement after 43 years in the industry.
tw Steel is a Dutch watchmaker known for its large oversized watches and chronographs. The company was established in 2005 by father and son team Jordy & Ton Cobelens in the Netherlands.
Richard Mille is a Swiss luxury watch company founded in 2001 by Dominique Guenat and Richard Mille, based in Les Breuleux, Switzerland. The brand specialises in very high-priced clockwork watches.
Philippe Dufour is a Swiss-born watchmaker from Le Sentier, Vallée de Joux. He is regarded as the greatest master of modern watchmaking, and his watches are referenced as among the best ever made. He finishes all of his watches himself by hand. In 1992, Dufour was the first watchmaker to put arguably the most complex of complications in a wristwatch, a Sonnerie. His other two models include Duality and Simplicity.
Watches and Wonders is a trade show of the international watch and jewelry industry. It is organized by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) and takes place at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland. Mainly attended by Richemont group brands, the SIHH is considered as one of the major shows for luxury watches along with Baselworld.
