On June 13, 1987, noted Parisian jewelers Pierre and Jacques Chaumet were taken into custody for bankruptcy, breach of trust, and fraud. The distinguished gentlemen would be convicted of all these crimes, losing control of the House of Chaumet, one of the most celebrated names in jewelry, as well as Breguet, which enjoyed a similar reputation in watchmaking. The story of the rise and fall of Chaumet is even more fascinating for what is not known about the case, however, and what it tells us about the modern aristocracy.
Blancpain, F. Piguet, Biver, and the Path Forward
Blancpain is billed as “the world’s oldest watchmaker”, but the history of the company is far more complex. Founded before 1735 in Villeret, the modern Blancpain traces its heritage to 1981, when Jean-Claude Biver purchased the name to be a mechanical rebuke of quartz watches. Blancpain and movement specialist Frédéric Piguet would be acquired by what is now the Swatch Group in 1992, with Biver leading the renaissance of mechanical watchmaking.