brilliant watchmaker born in Bohemia in 1811, Francois Czapek was initially associated with Antoni Patek, a fellow Pole who, like him, had settled in Switzerland after the failure of the uprising against the Russian occupation in 1830. At the end of a 6-year contract, the two men parted company and on May 1, 1845, Francois Czapek founded Czapek & Cie.

The company quickly established itself as a prestigious house of watchmaking. It played with all the classic codes and revolutionised century-old crafts by offering strong pieces with original designs, adorned with spectacular flinque enamels or sublime guilloches. Known and appreciated by the elite of the time, the entrepreneurial watchmaker opened two boutiques in addition to the one in Geneva with his partners, who were also Polish.

The first sales office opened in Warsaw. It enabled expatriates to stay in touch with their homeland. The second was set up at 25 Place Vendome in 1851, to take advantage of the attraction of Paris, then one of the places along with London where you had to be in order to prosper.

The watches attracted the attention of many Second Empire aristocrats and, as an article in “Le Monde Illustre” dated December 11, 1858, that of His Imperial Highness Napoleon III, for whom Czapek became the patented supplier. This was followed by years of progress, which undoubtedly prompted Francois Czapek to leave Geneva for Paris around 1860.

After a long period of success, the blockade of Paris during the 1870 war and then the blood riots of the ’Commune de Paris" in 1871 took their toll on this prestigious company, whose watches are still highly sought-after by major collectors today.

Czapek & Cie was reborn in 2015 by three entrepreneurs who were convinced that the brand was a real watchmaking treasure, and is now creating a future for itself among the nebula of prestigious brands.

As 2023 draws to a close, Czapek & Cie is renewing its ties with the past, once again opening a boutique in Paris. This time, however, it’s within the Maison Bucherer, the Swiss store specialising in the sale of fine timepieces, located at 12, boulevard des Capucines, between the Madeleine and the Opera, two high points of society life during the Second Empire.

In this temple to time, where the best brands are brought together, Czapek & Cie takes centre stage to celebrate its vision of the art of measuring time. The dedicated space is designed in the spirit of a cabinet of curiosities, where the human being is always at the centre of the story. In line with the brand’s motto “We Collect Rare People”, it features noble woods worked with curves and midnight blue Alcantara.

Open to all, this warm place is the perfect place to discover the collections, but also the astonishing history of this more than a century-old brand which, through the simplicity of the lines of its creations, makes you forget the sophistication of mechanics and where efficiency is combined with ergonomics to make each watch a unique and intensely fusional piece of jewellery.