Frédéric Piguet

Frédéric Piguet traces its roots to Louis-Elisée Piguet, who began producing ebauche movements in 1858 and founded the watchmaking tradition in Le Brassus. The business evolved through several phases: Louis-Elisée Piguet's four sons took over in 1905 and renamed the company Les Fils de L.E. Piguet. In 1938, Piguet's grandson acquired the family shares and renamed it Frédéric Piguet. Throughout its history, the company remained a prime supplier to high-end luxury watchmakers including Audemars Piguet, Paul Buhré, and H. Moser & Cie. Frédéric Piguet developed several pioneering ultra-thin movements that became foundational to modern watchmaking, including Caliber 21 (originally caliber 99), a hand-wound movement measuring just 1.73mm thick, which held the title of world's thinnest wristwatch movement for nearly two decades after upgrades in 1955. The company also developed Caliber 70 in 1970, an automatic movement at 2.4mm thick featuring an off-centered rotor. On November 2, 2010, Frédéric Piguet SA was merged into Blancpain SA with net assets of 25 million francs as part of the Swatch Group, with the manufacture remaining in Le Brassus where it had operated for over 150 years.