Czapek

Franciszek Czapek, a Polish watchmaker who had emigrated to Geneva after the failed November Uprising, founded Czapek and Cie in 1839 and in 1845 entered a formal partnership with Antoine Norbert de Patek under the name Patek Czapek and Co. When that partnership dissolved in 1851, Patek continued with Adrien Philippe (becoming Patek Philippe) while Czapek continued independently. Czapek's own firm operated through the mid-19th century supplying royalty including Napoleon III before closing in the early 20th century.

In 2012 a consortium of watchmaking and business leaders - Xavier de Roquemaurel, Harry Guhl, and Sebastien Follonier - acquired the Czapek name and relaunched the brand as a contemporary Geneva watchmaker. The early catalogue (Quai des Bergues, Place Vendome, Faubourg de Cracovie) offered traditional dress watches with hand-finished dials and Czapek-developed automatic calibres. Production was small (hundreds of pieces per year), prices were high, and distribution was through a boutique network and online.

In 2020 Czapek introduced the Antarctique, a 40.5mm integrated-bracelet sports watch with a sunray-guilloche dial, hand-finished in-house SXH5 automatic calibre, and case construction closer to a luxury tier than the brand's previous price point would suggest. The Antarctique arrived at the same moment that the Nautilus 5711 was being discontinued and the Tonda PF was launching - and Czapek's small production volumes combined with the collection's technical and visual quality made the Antarctique one of the most sought-after sports watches of the early 2020s, with multi-year waiting lists reported at retail.