CZAPEK & CIE
Czapek & Cei was the watchmaker to Napoleon III, below. run a seven day course,” said de Roquemaurel when I commented on this ingenious system. The impressive power reserve was generated by two serially coupled barrel springs.
The attraction of the 3430 was the combination of symmetry from left to right and asymmetry from top to bottom. As for the Roman numerals, they might have been just a hair or two too long and narrow, creating a slight dissonance in the way a beauty mark might on a clear face, but they did harmonize with the delicate fleur-de-lys hands that swept the dial.“ We haven’ t been able to replicate them yet, even with all our modern technology,” de Roquemaurel told me.“ We are not quite sure how he made them.”
A MYSTERIOUS ANCESTOR There was more that was unknown about this watchmaker, Patek’ s first partner … François Czapek must have been quite a character, perhaps a bit contrarian, a little rash occasionally, but definitely singleminded. He was not Polish originally, as de Roquemaurel had told me, but – as his name clearly indicates – Czech, or rather from the Kingdom of Bohemia. It was his mother, Catherine Walaschek, who was Polish. Some sources suggested he had learned watchmaking in Prague and Vienna. His first partner in Geneva was one“ Moreau.” He was also married to the daughter of a local watchmaker named Gevril.
After breaking up with Patek in 1845, he founded Czapek & Cie and in addition to making watches, he published the first Polish-language book on watchmaking with the title( in translation) Remarks On Watchmaking For Watchmakers And The Public. He was fortunate to befriend one Juliusz Gruzewski, a hero of the November Uprising, a representative of the Polish government in Switzerland, and a very well-connected individual. He ultimately invested in Czapek & Cie and helped get the products known in higher circles. At the apex of his career, Czapek was Purveyor of Watches to the court of Napoleon III, the emperor of France. Besides his workshop in Geneva, he kept a shop on Place Vendôme, no less, and one in Warsaw.
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WRISTWATCH | 2017
Arsenal in Warsaw