Their partnership was not an immediate success, however. Almost from the beginning, Audemars was in charge of production and the technical side, while his partner Piguet focused on sales. Shortly after their meeting in 1875, the two talented watchmakers decided to join forces and founded the firm that would someday come to be known as Audemars Piguet et Cie. Jules Audemars was soon producing raw components for watch movements, while Edward-August Piguet sought employment as a 'repasseur' (a master watchmaker who performs the final regulation on a watch). They had returned to the Vallee de Joux to find jobs in the local watchmaking industry. Both had learned the watchmaker's trade after finishing public school in their hometown of Le Brassus by training at the bench.

The Audemars Piguet story begins in 1875 when twenty-three-year-old watchmaker Jules Audemars and future partner Edward-August Piguet, just twenty-one years of age, met in the Vallee de Joux. Since then, the Royal Oak has become the leading model of the world-famous firm in Le Brassus and helped the stainless steel wristwatch attain respectability among watch lovers around the world. A trio of warships christened Royal Oak, named after the legendary 'royal oak' (a hollowed out tree which offered King Charles II a safe hiding place from his pursuers) lent their distinctive name in 1972 to an equally distinctive luxury sports watch - the Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet.

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