The encyclopedia of watchmaking
Short, sourced histories of watch brands, from 18th-century manufactures to microbrands founded in the last decade.
Germany · Founded 1845
A. Lange & Söhne
Refounded on 7 December 1990, exactly 145 years after Ferdinand Adolph Lange began.
Haute horlogerie
Switzerland · Founded 1875
Audemars Piguet
Owned by its founders' families since 1875 and still based in the village where it began.
Haute horlogerie
France · Founded 2017
Baltic
Baltic's Only Watch 2021 piece sold for CHF 50,000, almost three times its high estimate.
Microbrands
France · Founded 1994
Bell & Ross
Bell & Ross's early watches were built by Sinn in Frankfurt.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 1735
Blancpain
The Fifty Fathoms was developed in 1953 for French Navy combat swimmers.
Haute horlogerie
Switzerland · Founded 1775
Breguet
Abraham-Louis Breguet patented the tourbillon in Paris on 26 June 1801.
Haute horlogerie
Switzerland · Founded 1884
Live pricesBreitling
James Bond's Geiger-counter Top Time resurfaced at a car boot sale, bought for £25.
Tracked brands
France · Founded 1847
Live pricesCartier
The Santos was drawn for an aviator who could not check a pocket watch while flying.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 1860
Chopard
Chopard has made the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or trophy since 1998.
Haute horlogerie
United Kingdom · Founded 2004
Christopher Ward
The first British brand to win a GPHG prize, with a chiming watch, in 2023.
Microbrands
Japan · Founded 1918
Citizen
Tokyo's mayor suggested the name Citizen for the firm's first pocket watch in 1924.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 1999
F.P.Journe
The only three-time winner of the GPHG Aiguille d'Or, with movements made of rose gold.
Independents
United Kingdom · Founded 2015
Farer
Farer names its watches after explorers, Royal Navy ships and land speed record holders.
Microbrands
Switzerland · Founded 1988
Frederique Constant
The brand name joins the first names of its Dutch founders' great-grandparents.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 2019
Furlan Marri
Seven months after its Kickstarter debut, it won the GPHG Horological Revelation Prize.
Microbrands
Japan · Founded 1960
Live pricesGrand Seiko
Launched in 1960 for Japan alone; international sales began half a century later.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 1828
H. Moser & Cie.
Moser once cased a watch in resin mixed with Vacherin Mont d'Or cheese.
Independents
Switzerland · Founded 1892
Hamilton
Hamilton sold the first battery-powered wristwatch, the Electric 500, in 1957.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 1980
Hublot
The first Hublot of 1980 paired a gold case with a natural rubber strap.
Haute horlogerie
Switzerland · Founded 1868
Live pricesIWC Schaffhausen
The psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung was a co-owner of IWC until 1929.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 1833
Jaeger-LeCoultre
Its Calibre 101 of 1929 is still the smallest mechanical movement, weighing about a gram.
Haute horlogerie
Japan · Founded 2019
Kurono Tokyo
Hajime Asaoka's lower-priced line; its 2020 Anniversary Mori sold out in 42 seconds.
Microbrands
Switzerland · Founded 1832
Live pricesLongines
Its winged hourglass of 1889 is the oldest logo at WIPO still in its original form.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 2005
MB&F
The '& Friends' are real: MB&F names the outside watchmakers behind each machine.
Independents
Germany · Founded 1990
NOMOS Glashütte
NOMOS was registered in January 1990, two months after the Berlin Wall fell.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 2018
Norqain
One of very few outside brands supplied with movements by Tudor's Kenissi.
Independents
Switzerland · Founded 1848
Live pricesOmega
The company took its name from an 1894 movement, not the other way round.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 1904
Oris
Oris is named after a brook near Hölstein and has made only mechanical watches since 1992.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 1860
Live pricesPanerai
The Italian Navy's early Radiomirs were built by Rolex; Panerai supplied the dials.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 1839
Patek Philippe
In 2019 a steel Grandmaster Chime sold for CHF 31 million, the auction record for a watch.
Haute horlogerie
Czechia · Founded 1949
PRIM
Czechoslovakia's only wristwatch factory made about 15 million PRIM watches by 1990.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 1905
Live pricesRolex
Founded in London in 1905 and owned by a charitable foundation since 1960.
Tracked brands
Japan · Founded 1881
Seiko
Seiko sold the first quartz wristwatch, the Astron, on Christmas Day 1969.
Established
Germany · Founded 1961
Sinn Spezialuhren
Sinn makes dive watch cases from the steel used in German Navy submarines.
Established
United Kingdom · Founded 2021
Studio Underd0g
Its first order window took 300 orders in three weeks; by 2024, about 6,000 in nine hours.
Microbrands
Switzerland · Founded 1860
Live pricesTAG Heuer
A Heuer stopwatch flew with John Glenn in 1962 as the backup clock on Friendship 7.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 1853
Tissot
Tissot made the first plastic mechanical watch, the Idea 2001, in 1971.
Established
Switzerland · Founded 1926
Live pricesTudor
Created by Rolex's founder in 1926; the French Navy used its Submariners for two decades.
Tracked brands
Switzerland · Founded 1755
Vacheron Constantin
Its oldest document is an apprentice's contract signed in Geneva on 17 September 1755.
Haute horlogerie
Switzerland · Founded 1865
Zenith
A watchmaker hid the El Primero tooling in an attic in 1975 rather than see it scrapped.
Haute horlogerie