Audemars Piguet (AP)
Some of AP innovations include, the world smallest minute repeater and the world first skeleton watch. In recent years, some of AP more popular models include their sport models like Royal oak and Royal oak offshore. AP was also the OEM watch manfacutuer for well known fashion and luxury brands like; Tiffany & Co, Cartier and Bulgari.
As compare to lots of high end brands which are own by large conglomerate, AP is still an independent company with members of the Audemars and Piguet families sitting in the board of directors and involved directly or indirectly in the running of the company.
For more details of the company, pls refer to the company official link: http://www.audemarspiguet.com//
Officine Panerai
photo courtesy from the web
Audemars Piguet (AP) is a high end luxury Swiss watch maker. It was founded in 1875 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet.
Some of AP innovations include, the world smallest minute repeater and the world first skeleton watch. In recent years, some of AP more popular models include their sport models like Royal oak and Royal oak offshore. AP was also the OEM watch manfacutuer for well known fashion and luxury brands like; Tiffany & Co, Cartier and Bulgari.
As compare to lots of high end brands which are own by large conglomerate, AP is still an independent company with members of the Audemars and Piguet families sitting in the board of directors and involved directly or indirectly in the running of the company.
For more details of the company, pls refer to the company official link: http://www.audemarspiguet.com//
Officine Panerai
The company was founded in 1860 in Florence , Italy
In 1936, unable to find a watch to fit their needs, the Royal Italian Navy appointed Panerai to develop a watch which will be able to withstand the extreme conditions of military operations. A prototype of the famous Radiomir was submitted to the Command of the First Submarine Group and the watch passed all the tests with flying colours. Production of the radiomir began 2 years later in 1938 for the Italian Navy with a hand wound Rolex movement.
In the 40s to 60s, besides manufacturing watches for other Navy (e.g. Egyptian Navy), the company also develop its first chronograph Mare Nostrum, designed for deck officers. Due to events in the war, the Mare Nostrum never went into production but remained at the prototype stage. A few patents were also granted which has now been closely associated with Panerai watches. They are the patents for:
- Luminor, the luminous substances based on tritium which the now famous Luminor watches take their name from.
- Patent was also granted for the device used to protect the winding crown, which clamps it in position and ensures the water-resistance of the watch.
In 1972, the firm was officially named as Officine Panerai s.r.l. and in 1993 it launch a numbered series in a limited edition of models aimed at the civilian market: Luminor, Luminor Marina and an edition of the Mare Nostrum chronograph.
In 1997, the RICHEMONT Group takes over Officine Panerai. New productions are started up, with a significant improvement in quality, and the official watch of Italian Navy commandos takes on an international dimension following a worldwide launch and in 1998 it launch its first automatic movement watches:
· The Luminor Submersible professional diver's watch
· The Luminor GMT with a second time zone indication
· The Luminor Power Reserve with a function of high quality watchmaking which enables the power reserve to be read.
In 2005, the first Panerai in-house movement: the calibre P.2002 was developed. This is a hand-wound mechanical movement with 8 days power reserve and consists of 245 components (191 of them different). Two years later in 2007, 3 more movement the caliber P.2003, P.2004 and P.2005 were also developed. Besides, its Radiomir and Luminor series of watches, Panerai also developed 2 other series of watches with Ferrari. There are the Granturismo and Scuderia.
For more details on the company, do visit their official website at http://www.panerai.com/s_page.xpd?id_lingua=2&id_sezione=1
Patek Philippe
photo courtesy from the web
Founded in Geneva
Patek Philippe is known for their fine craftsmanship and innovation in time pieces and still remain today as one of the finest luxury watchmaker in the world. Some of the company milestones include:
· The world’s first instantaneous changing perpetual calendar wristwatch, with indication of leap years.
· A patented annual calendar mechanism that automatically takes into account the durations of the different months in the calendar.
· The world first tourbillon on a wristwatch with 10 days power reserve
For more information on the company, pls refer to their official website at
Rolex
Rolex SA is a Swiss manufacturer of high-quality and luxury wristwatches. It was founded by Hans Wilsdof and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis back in 1908. Rolex watches are not only popularly regarded as status symbols and is also known for their innovations and pioneering watch technology. Some of Rolex patents and innovations include:
- Automatic Movement (Self Winding), Rolex was the first to introduce the self winding wristwatch to the public in 1931. The watch uses an internal mechanism that used the movement of the wearer's arm to power it. Such a mechanism made watch winding no longer necessary and also help to keep the power from the mainspring more consistent resulting in more reliable time keeping
- Quartz Movement, Rolex engineers were instrumental in the design and implmentation of the quartz technology to wristwatch.The technology was then used on the few limited quartz models that Rolex has in its Oyster line collections.
- Water Resistant casing, Rolex was also the first to come up with the idea of water resistant watch case. The first water resistant wristwatch was developed by Rolex and is water resistant up to 100m. Development of water resistant for watches has developed by leap and bound over the years and currently the Rolex deepsea should be having the deepest resistant level among all rolex sport model, which is at a depth of close to 4,000m
- Utility Focus Collection, Rolex was to pioneer to introduce the concept of "watch for a purpose". They have developed specific watch model to serve the specific needs of end users. For example:
- Rolex Submriner and sea dweller for deep sea diving
- Explorer and Explorer II for explorers to be used in rough terrain, such as the Mount Everest Expeditions.
- GMT Master to assist pilots who need to cross multiple time zones
- Ceramic bezels, This is one of the latest innovation by Rolex, which has been introduced to some of its latest sports model (Sumariner, sea Dweller, deepsea, GMT II etc). The mainadvantage of a ceramic bezel is their resistant to scratches and UV light.
Sinn
The company was founded in Frankfurt Am Main, Germany in 1961 and is owned and managed by Lothar Schmidt, formerly production director with IWC and A. Lange & Sohne. Mr. Schmidt is an engineer, and over the years has led the Sinn team in creating a number of patented watch technologies. Some of these patents include:
- The usage of oil in watches to achieve extreme depth
- The DIAPAL technology that allows the movement's most important bearings to do without lubrication.
- Tegiment process to harden the watch casing to 1200 HV or more, resulting in a watch case that is highly scratch resistant and many times the hardness of standard stainless steel.
- The use of inert gasses with copper sulphate capsules to create a humidity free environment for the protection of both the watch movement.
