The original Czapek & Cie was a Geneva watchmaker founded in 1845 by François Czapek, a Polish watchmaker who had previously been the partner of Antoine Norbert de Patek in the firm Patek, Czapek & Cie (1839-1845, the predecessor to Patek Philippe). The Czapek-Patek partnership dissolved in 1845 when Patek joined Adrien Philippe; Czapek continued independently with his own house, supplying watches to Napoleon III and other 19th-century European nobility. The original Czapek house ceased operations around 1869-70, and the brand sat dormant for more than 140 years.
The modern Czapek revival was announced in 2015, with Xavier de Roquemaurel and Harry Guhl as co-founders. The first reference, the Quai des Bergues (a hand-wound dress watch with a hand-engraved guilloché silver dial), launched in 2016 with investment crowdfunding from collectors who became "shareholders" of the relaunched maison. The Quai des Bergues established the brand's focus on hand-finished movements, hand-engraved dials, and a small-batch independent manufacture identity.
The Antarctique launched in 2020 as Czapek's response to the integrated-bracelet sport-watch trend that had taken over the Swiss industry through the late 2010s (Royal Oak, Nautilus, and the new wave of integrated-bracelet sport watches at Vacheron, Bulgari, Tissot, and many more). The Antarctique brought Czapek's hand-finishing approach to the format: a 40.5mm stainless-steel integrated-bracelet case, the brand's signature "Stairway to Eternity" three-dimensional guilloché dial pattern (an interlocking square waffle motif inspired by Patek-Czapek-era 1840s design vocabulary), and the in-house Cal. SXH5 micro-rotor automatic with a 60-hour power reserve and a hand-finished blackened gold rotor visible through the sapphire caseback.
The Antarctique launched at approximately USD 19,500 retail for the steel version. Production is small (Czapek has never disclosed exact figures, but estimates suggest a few hundred Antarctiques per year in the early 2020s), and demand has consistently exceeded supply: Antarctiques typically sell out at allocation. The line has expanded with multiple dial colours (blue Glace, salmon Espresso, green Amazonia, ice-white Banquise, multiple Terre Adélie variants in deep blue), a chronograph variant (Antarctique Rattrapante in 2022, USD ~85,000+), and an 18k pink gold variant (USD ~45,000). The Antarctique now anchors the Czapek catalogue.
