Czapek & Cie. is a Swiss watch brand named after the Czech-Polish watchmaker François Czapek.[1]
François Czapek
Franciszek Czapek was a Czech-born, Polish master watchmaker who arrived in Geneva, Switzerland in May 1832. Soon after, he gallicised his name, thus becoming François Czapek. In 1834 he created the firm Czapek & Moreau with local Swiss watchmaker Moreau, from Versoix. On October 22, 1836, François Czapek married Marie, the daughter of clock- and watchmaker Jonas Pierre François Gevril de Carouge (1777–1854).
Czapek was the author of the first book on watchmaking ever published in the Polish language Słów kilka o Zegarmistrzowstwie ku użytku zegarmistrzów i publiczności ("Remarks on the watchmaking for the use of the watchmakers and the public"). The work was printed in 1850 in Leipzig.
On May 1, 1839, Antoni Patek and François Czapek established a six-year partnership in Geneva under the name of Patek, Czapek & Cie. This partnership produced some exceptional watches which are part of important horological collection (King Farouk Collection, Patek Philippe Museum) or auctions (Antiquorum, Christies, Bonhams, Sotheby's). Czapek was head of watchmaking (finisseur), while Patek led the sales and the company. As of July 1840, the firm came gradually to employ a half-dozen workmen. Several were Poles: Lilpop from Warsaw, Henryk Majewski from Lwów (today's Ukrainian Lviv) as well as Siedlecki and Friedlein from