This is from a thread dating back to November 1997.

FREDERIC PIGUET: SWITZERLAND'S HIGH-END INDEPENDENT MOVEMENT MAKER

Frederic Piguet is arguably the finest independent movement manufacturer in Switzerland today. Founded by Louis Elysee Piguet in 1858 and located in Le Brassus in the Vallee de Joux, Piguet has to this day produced only very high quality raw movements and never complete watches. Among its customers are Blancpain, Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Vacheron Constantin, Gerald Genta (!), IWC, Ulysse Nardin, Chopard, Piaget, Urban Jurgensen, and Breitling. (Some of Piguet's movements are, however, exclusively reserved for Blancpain, more about which later). Although Piguet was purchased by the SMH group in 1993, its production has remained unchanged and it is still run as a family business by Jacques Piguet, great-grandson of Louis Elysee.

Piguet movements are widely recognized by watchmakers as first-class products, immaculate in their engineering originality, elegant construction, and fine finish. They are distinctive looking, beautifully finished movements, with a minimum of decoration that emphasizes the graining of the steel, much in the style of Patek Philippe. They are also a pleasure to work on because of their intelligent construction and durability.

Today Piguet manufacturers ten basic calibres, 3 hand-wound, 5 automatic, and 2 quartz. The mechanical movements include every complication, including power reserve; chronograph and split-second chronograph, tourbillon, perpetual calendar, and minute repetition. Piguet also produces a superb quality quartz-mechanical chronograph, the only competitor to Jaeger LeCoultre's well known 631.

The three current hand-wound movements include the calibers 21, 6.10 and 8.10. The Cal. 21 is exactly as it was on its introduction in 1925, a 1.73 mm height, and 18 jewel movement used by Blancpain, Bucherer, Chopard, and Cartier. The 8.10, introduced in 1990, is a 2.0 mm height 20 jewel movement. And the 6.10, introduced in 1993, a 2.1 mm height, 21 jewel movement for women's watches (the diameter is only 15.7 mm or 7 lignes). (The diameters of the 21 and 8.10 are 20.4 and 18.4 mm, respectively).

Piguet's five automatics are among the very best movements now available to the watch collector. These include the calibers P-71; the 9''' (comprised of the 951, 952, and 953); the 1195; the 1185; and the 11.50. I will describe these in a bit more detail.

The P-71, introduced in 1985, is an updated version of the original P-70, introduced in 1970. This is an ultra thin automatic at 2.4 mm. The movement uses a "central" rotor of beryllium mounted slightly off center, the perimeter of the rotor running in a channel cut in the base plate. With automatic winding in one direction,
the P-71 uses 35 jewels, a smooth two-spoke Glucydur balance, movable hairspring block carrier, escape wheel cap jewels, and runs at 18,000 bph. The mainspring barrel of the P-71 is open, and the spring is visible on an inspection of the movement top plate. The P-71 is presently used by Breguet, Chopard, IWC, Ulysse Nardin, and others.

The 9''' caliber is comprised of the 951, 952, and 952, according to second hand and date. Introduced in 1986, the 9''' is thicker than the P-71 (at 3.2 mm) but is a small diameter movement (at 20. 2 mm). The rather original automatic mechanism (a combined winding and locking wheel serves as a tooth-directing lock) winds in one direction with a beryllium rotor mounted on ball bearings. This extremely elegant and simple movement is supplied with 19 jewels and was the basis for the Blancpain's early perpetual calendars (during the 1980's). Running at 21,600 bph, the 9''' used a smooth three-spoke Glucydur balance, movable
hairspring block carrier, and allows for both center seconds and guichet date ("date-in-window"). The movement is currently used by Blancpain and Chopard.

The caliber 1195 was introduced in 1988. At 25.6 mm diameter and height of 4.5 mm, the 1195 is a 27 jewel, 21,600 bph allowing for center seconds and guichet date. This very modern movement uses escape wheel cap jewels, a movable hairspring block carrier, and a Triovis fine adjustment (allowing regulation of the rate without disturbing the beat) with a smooth Glucydur balance. Blancpain is currently the sole user of the 1195 (in the Blancpain Ref. 1195).

The caliber 1185 is known to all chronograph collectors because it is, arguably, the finest (as well as the smallest and flattest) chronograph movement in production today. Also introduced in 1988, the Cal. 1185 (which is essentially a Cal. 1195 with chronograph plate), is 26.0 mm in diameter, 5.4 mm in height, uses 37 jewels (36 at the beginning of production) and runs at 21,600 bph. The 1185 column wheel chronograph plate adds only 0.4 mm in diameter and 0.9 mm in height to the basic 1195. Other technical features of the movement are the same as the Cal. 1195, but the guichet date is at 6:00 o'clock (instead of 3:00 as on the 1195). Piguet's chronograph is also offered with a rattrapante ("split seconds") feature as the Cal. 1186 and can be supplied with minute repetition. Used in all the Blancpain chronographs, including the rattrapante, chronograph-perpetual calendar, and recent Flyback, the movement is also used in all Piaget
chronographs and a few Breitlings (which are largely not Piguet's).

1150

Finally, in 1988 Piguet also introduced the Cal. 11.50, which is, in some sense, Piguet's counterpart to the excellent and popular Jaeger LeCoultre 889: an immaculately engineered and constructed, sturdy and versatile, men's automatic movement. At 25.6 mm (the JLC 889 is 26.0) and 3.25 mm height (the JLC is identical), the 11.50 adds something unavailable in the JLC movement, a 100 hour power reserve.

This is achieved by identical twin mainspring barrels operating in series, wound in one direction by a complex, 6 part transmission system from the rotor. The automatic system is disconnected during hand winding by a rocker between the crown wheel and the locking wheel of the first barrel. Other specifications of the movement include 29 jewels, 21,600 bph, Kif shock resistance, smooth three-spoke Glucydur balance, a 21-toothed escape wheel with cap jewels, and Spirofin fine adjustment with movable hairspring block carrier (similar in function to the Triovis adjustment described for the Cal. 1195). This extremely refined movement is used in Blancpain's "2100" series watches, although a very tiny number of the Cal. 11.50 have been used in the traditional (small Roman) Blancpain cases. Chopard has also uses the 11.50.

THE BLANCPAIN CONNECTION

A short note on the Piguet-Blancpain connection seems in order. Blancpain was founded by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain, who was born in the Jura Valley (just North of the Vallee de Joux) in 1693. J. J. Blancpain was first an individual parts maker for Geneva manufacturers, then a dealer of completed watches, and finally established his own company, Montres Blancpain, in 1735. This firm survived productively well into the 20th century. In 1926 Blancpain manufactured the famous Harwood-designed and Rolls automatics, as well as numerous well-known diver's and pilot's watches. By 1971, however, Blancpain discontinued production and the trade name was purchased by the consortium SMH in that year.

SMH never produced watches under the Blancpain name and 12 years later, in 1983, Jacques Piguet and Jean-Claude Biver (at that time head of Omega, and former director of sales for Audemars Piguet) jointly purchased the trade name and parts inventory from SMH. Blancpain was relocated from Villeret to Le Brassus (literally around the corner from Audemars Piguet) to share a large farm house with the Piguet factory, an arrangement maintained to this day. At this time, the high-end Swiss watch industry was largely preoccupied with "modern," decorative watches typified by the ultra-flat, often square pieces which even Audemars and Patek were producing and by the Corum "gold ingot" and "Rolls Royce grille" models. Piguet and Biver wanted to return to the production of immaculately constructed, very traditional Swiss watches with traditional complications and believed there was a market for such pieces. Blanpain-Piguet released its first
watches in 1984, including a triple-date moonphase and quantieme perpetual, all with steel or steel and 18K cases.

Today, Blancpain is a small, but obviously successful, manufacturer producing about 3,500 pieces per years (by comparison, Audemars produces about 8,000 and Patek about 15,000 pieces). Blancpain uses only Piguet movements. Some of the Piguet movements are supplied "raw," to be finished by Blancpain watchmakers and some are supplied completely finished. Movements and manufacturing equipment are jointly designed and produced by the two companies.

A little more about Piguet

Forum: TimeZone - Advanced Forum
Re: Frederic Piguet: Switzerland's High-End Independent Movement Maker (long text) (Walt Odets)
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 15:05:36 GMT
From: James M. Dowling

Hi Walt;

Interesting stuff......however from around about the turn of the century until the 1960s Piguet made most of their income from adding complications to other companies' movements. They were (to all intents and purposes) the *complicated* division of Patek Philippe; at that time the company was known as *Victorin Piguet*. The complicated watches it made for Patek ranged from all the early split second chronographs and perpetual calendars to such basic things as sweep seconds movements; any Patek wristwatch made before the 1949 introduction of the 27SC calibre will have what appears to be half a chronograph movement on the main plate of the watch. This was the indirect drive and was designed, built and attached to the Patek base caliber by Victorin Piguet. They performed similar services to many other companies, Cartier and Vacheron amongst others but Patek were by far their largest client. However I am unsure as to the timeframe of all the corporate name
changes; I know it started off as Louis Elysee Piguet but when it metamorphosed into VP and then into FP I am unsure of.

Good luck

James

James, thanks for the addition . . .

Forum: TimeZone - Advanced Forum
Re: Frederic Piguet: Switzerland's High-End Independent Movement Maker (long text) (Walt Odets)
Re: A little more about Piguet (James M. Dowling)
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 20:03:23 GMT
From: Walt Odets

I have seen many of the Pateks with "indirect center seconds by Victorin Piguet," but I was not aware that this was the same company (Piguet is a common French name). I can't find a history of name changes for the firm, but there have been four generations of Piguet's involved and it was, of course, very common to change the name of a company every time someone new took over management.

Because of changes in management, Blancpain has gone under the names Montres Blancpain (1735-1815), Blancpain (1815-1830), Emile Blancpain (1830-1857), E. Blancpain et fils (1857-1889), E. Blancpain Fils (1889-1928), Blancpain, Farbrique d' Horlogerie a Villeret (1928-1932), Rayville SA. succ. de Blancpain (1932-1959), Manufacture d'horlogerie Rayville SA. Montres Blancpain (1959-1970). The Rayville name was introduced when Frederic Emile Blancpain died in 1932 without heirs and his business associate Madame Fichter took over the company. Rayville is a phonetic anagram of Villeret, the name of the town where the factory was located. Today, marketing savvy would prohibit such name changes.

On conglomerates, hamburgers, and oysters . . .

Forum: TimeZone - Advanced Forum
Re: Frederic Piguet: Switzerland's High-End Independent Movement Maker (long text) (Walt Odets)
Re: A Few Questions... (Michael Friedberg)
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 07:51:28 GMT
From: Walt Odets

No, I'm not sure the production figures are absolutely current, but even with the adjustments you suggest the relative production is about correct, which was the point. Audemars, though, is certainly not producing much more than 8,000 pieces a year, and I'd be surprised even at that. Blancpain is still among the very smallest of the top-quality manufacturers.

Yes, Piguet and Blancpain sold the company back to SMH a year or two ago. As I did say at the beginning of the piece, SMH had already bought Piguet. There is a lot of focus in forum discussion on financial ownership rather than division management and actual product. As nearly as I know, Blancpain is still independently managed. What is not usually discussed is the advantage of large group membership--sharing of resources, technical exchange, etc. I think IWC and JLC have both benefited from their exchange and it is one of the reasons their products have become so good and prices have remained so reasonable (especially JLC's). The lack of such resources is one reason that, aside from tiny numbers of complications, Patek spends so much time shuffling three or four movements among dozens of new cases.

I said "arguably" on the Cal. 1185 because I know some would disagree. Whether an "integrated" movement or chronographic plate are preferable is one of those arguments that overlooks the obvious: it all depends on how you do it. Although no one seems to complain about it, I believe that every perpetual made consists of a calendar plate on a basic movement. Like chronograph plates, this often makes the movement easier to service because the "complication" can be removed as a unit. I think the strength of the 1185 is its size (a very important accomplishment) and typically thorough Piguet engineering, construction and finish.

Patek obviously makes a superb chronograph, but the last time I looked, they started at $49,000 or so and Patek was making a tiny handful of them--I wouldn't guess two percent of their unit production. The El Primero, which I like and have written favorably about, is simply not in the league of these two in terms of construction, finish, or durability. I am not too familiar with the Lemanias, but I think some of them are good, if thick (8.25 mm is a bit much for a WRIST watch, don't you think?). Breguet's finishing of them is obviously immaculate, but a hamburger is still a hamburger, even when worn on the wrist. Speaking of hamburgers, what about the Off Shore?

P.S. Unlike someone else who posts nothing but Patek lauds, I've posted on a range of manufacturers, including JLC, IWC, Audemars, Zenith, Vacheron, Oris, Piguet, Blancpain--and Patek, which, all said and done, is not the beginning and end of the hor0logical world, even if auction buyers don't know it. If, as Truman Capote once said, swallowing your first oyster is like swallowing a nightmare, going outside in a Neptune seems a lot like wearing one. Just a humble opinion, of course.