CZAPEK & CIE
CZAPEK & CIE WAS FOUNDED ON MAY 1ST, 1845 IN GENEVA, AND REBORN ON OCTOBER 21ST, 2011.
BETWEEN END 2011 AND END 2014 THE COMPANY HAS RUN THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES:
• COMPLETE LEGAL SEARCH ON CZAPEK
• WORLDWIDE TRADEMARK REGISTRATION: CZAPEK, FRANCOIS CZAPEK
• CREATION OF THE FIRST MODEL: DESIGN STUDY CHRONOGRAPH
• FORMULATION OF A REVIVAL PLAN THROUGH CROWD FUNDING EQUITY
• DESIGN AND CONCEPTION OF THE FIRST COLLECTION AND MOVEMENT.
It was a twist of fate, perhaps, since Guhl was now living in Prague. In 2012, he decided to buy the name, which, he was amazed to find, was up for grabs. One wonders why Patek Philippe hasn’ t bought it to prophylactically block anyone from piggybacking its own fame so easily, or just for old times’ sake. Guhl had a partner to develop the brand, but he died, alas, leaving two options: either sell the name, or find new associates. Enter Xavier de Roquemaurel in 2013, who happened to be out of work at the time and was enthusiastic about the project.
The two men got along together, being quite different in character. De Roquemaurel is the extrovert, Guhl the introvert, a calm man, who has practiced Zen meditation for over a quarter century. What they both realized, is that they had very little actual watchmaking experience and would need a third person to make up for their absence of technical know-how. It was De Roquemaurel who suggested a someone he knew, a figure that would remain anonymous until the unveiling of the watch, scheduled for November 10, 2015 …
I was curious about the origins of the project, and the financing, which, I knew already, would be done via subscription, a system that was as old as Louis-Abraham Breguet. The original idea was to get some money up front from a customer or customers, manufacture the piece, and then get the rest on delivery.
In the early twenty-first century, the Internet had adapted and de-gentrified the idea by developing crowdfunding.“ Every buyer will be an owner of the company and will have a say,” Xavier de Roquemaurel told me. I must have had a skeptical look on my face, because he added that everything would be made public, notably on November 10, 2015, the date scheduled for new Czapek’ s coming out party. Meanwhile he had to get back to his peripatetic life raising 500,000 Swiss francs to get the first prototypes done.
THE UNVEILING And that fateful day came soon enough, a sunny day in Geneva, with a northeasterly wind, the famous bise, chilling the atmosphere and chasing away the clouds. A small group of journalists, collectors, and other watch groupies gathered at La Potinière, a restaurant in the Jardin Anglais close to Geneva’ s hallmark, the Flower Clock. The pending GPHG had obviously hobbled some of the media excitement, but De Roquemaurel emceed the event with might and with main and a good dose of humor. He showed a film and then passed around a selection of watches, including some prototypes. He also divulged who the mystery watchmaker was: Sébastien Follonier, a complications specialist at Corum, who had cut his teeth with such eminent brands as Greubel Forsey and Girard-Perregaux.
De Roquemaurel had more to share, though: The financing for the project, he explained, would be done via Raizers, a European crowd equity site. They had a few months to raise 1 million Swiss
56
WRISTWATCH | 2017