François Czapek was a Czech-born Polish watchmaker who fled to Geneva in 1832 after fighting in the Polish uprising. He immediately started his own atelier and in 1839 entered into a partnership with Antoine Norbert de Patek, introducing him to the world of watchmaking. In 1845, at the end of their partnership, he created Czapek & Cie and achieved considerable success. Czapek & Cie has been revived in 2015. In 2020 the company launched the Antarctique, a sport-chic integrated bracelet timepiece powered by Czapek’s first in-house movement, an automatic three hander with microrotor.