François Czapek, a Polish emigrant, founded his Geneva house in 1845; in 2015 three entrepreneurs, with watch lovers as shareholders, brought the name back.
How it began
Franciszek Czapek was born in 1811 in Semonice, in the kingdom of Bohemia, and moved to Poland with his family in his youth. After the collapse of the Polish uprising, in which he took part, he fled to Switzerland in 1832. There he founded his first company, Czapek & Moreau, and Gallicised his name to François.
In 1839 he and another Polish emigrant, Antoine Norbert de Patek, founded Patek, Czapek & Cie. The partnership lasted six years. On 1 May 1845 Czapek founded Czapek & Cie with a new partner, Juliusz Gruzewski.
He wrote one of the first watchmaking treatises in Polish. The house was named Watchmaker of His Imperial Highness, Prince Napoleon. At its height the house had boutiques in Geneva, Warsaw and on Place Vendôme in Paris. In 1871 Czapek mysteriously disappeared.
The revival
The company name was officially resurrected on 12 December 2012. Xavier de Roquemaurel and two other entrepreneurs then studied a library of Czapek’s watches to steep themselves in his work and personality. De Roquemaurel, CEO and partner, describes the approach. “We sought to understand Czapek as if he were alive and young.”
What they found was a taste for contrast: a Roman minute hand with a fleur-de-lys hour hand, vertical symmetry with horizontal asymmetry. Details of his 1850s pocket watch No. 3430 returned too. Its open ratchets reappear in the SXH1 movement, and its double hand shows a seven-day power reserve with the day of the week.
The house was launched in Geneva in 2015. Watch lovers could invest in it through an equity crowdfunding campaign, and Czapek says it became the first haute horlogerie brand revived by watch aficionados worldwide. Its tagline speaks of collecting rare people, a phrase that takes in those shareholders, its clients and its craftsmen.
The watches
Each collection takes its name from François Czapek’s life. Quai des Bergues, the first, honours the place in Geneva where he founded the company in 1845. It runs on a seven-day manual-winding movement, and in 2016 its No. 33bis won the Public Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.
Place Vendôme followed in 2017, named after the Paris square where he opened a boutique in 1850. The Faubourg de Cracovie chronograph came in 2018, named after his Warsaw boutique of 1854.
In 2020 the Antarctique introduced the SXH5, the first movement conceived and developed entirely in-house. It is an automatic micro-rotor calibre, in a case of 40.5mm or 38.5mm. In 2023 the Place Vendôme Complicité, made with master watchmaker Bernhard Lederer, added a double escapement with differential.
The house today
In April 2022 Czapek opened its own manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Machining, milling and polishing now sit under one roof, for speed and for independence. Beyond it, the house works by what it calls horizontal manufacture, the modern form of 19th-century établissage. Partners include Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, which builds its chronograph movement, and Donzé Cadrans for Grand Feu enamel.
Czapek has developed seven calibres over the years. In 2025 the house marked ten years since its return with the Time Jumper, a jumping-hour watch. Its master seal carries a golden bee, a tribute to the imperial title of the 1850s and a symbol of the revival.
At a glance
- Founded: 1845 (Czapek & Cie, Geneva); revived in 2015
- Founders: François Czapek; revived by Xavier de Roquemaurel and two partners
- Based in: Geneva, with a manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds
- Known for: Quai des Bergues, Place Vendôme, Faubourg de Cracovie and Antarctique; the in-house SXH5
- Independent: Yes, by its own account (“Independent High Horology”); shareholders include crowdfunding investors
Sources: Czapek’s own website (Our Story, Watchmaking, We Collect Rare People, and the Antarctique and Quai des Bergues collection pages).