In order to keep pace with its growing success， the company opened the new Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie Piaget in Plan-les-Ouates in 2001 ， just outside Geneva. This event consolidated a visionary integration strategy already undertaken by the company in the 1960s. This high-performance facility， regrouping both watchmaking and jeweler crafts， complements the historical site in la Cte-aux-Fées where the movements are made. At the same time， Piaget continued to invest in the domain of research and development.
Within barely a decade， almost 30 new movements were to be created， including some of the most prestigious horological complications， and notably a tourbillion， a dual time-zone flyback chronograph and a perpetual calendar. Meanwhile， jewelry watches were endowed with innovative concepts adding further sparkle to the natural radiance of diamonds.
All these masterpieces are entirely in line with Piagets proverbial inventiveness and emphatically reassert the founders motto： “Always do better than necessary”.
Inimitable [inimitbl] adj. 独特的；无比的；无法仿效的
prestigious [prestids] adj. 有名望的；享有声望的
indelibly [indelibli] adv. 不可消除地
international recognition国际认可
ultra-thin超薄
self-winding自动上发条的
high-performance高性能的，高效能的
horological [，hrldikl] adj. 钟表的；钟表术的
乔治·爱德华·伯爵（Georges Edouard Piaget）在瑞士侏罗山区的小村庄La Cte-aux-Fées安家立业，这里数十年后成为奢华与精准腕表制造的代名词。1874年，他首先在自家农舍开设了首家机芯制造工作坊，专门为瑞士着名钟表品牌制作性能精准的高质机芯。蒸蒸日上的钟表事业得到迅速发展，而伯爵的声望也远近驰名。出自伯爵之手的钟表机芯，皆以精湛工艺制作而成，倍受各界肯定，工作坊也不断扩大。
1911年提摩太·伯爵（Timothée Piaget）从父亲乔治手中接掌家业，并秉承着其父对钟表业的热情、以及对质量的一贯坚持。伯爵表厂自此打下了稳健而坚实的基础。
企业家精神、勇于尝试、永不言败的精神，深植在伯爵家族的血统中。伯爵在1943年决定将伯爵（Piaget）注册为品牌名称，并在La Cte-aux-Fées表芯的正式推出及销售冠上 “Piaget ”标志。在创办人的孙子杰若德和华伦太·伯爵（Gérald、Valentin Piaget）两人的掌舵下，伯爵品牌在世界各地开疆拓土，知名度与日俱增，展现出脱胎换骨的全新气象。
伯爵坚持先锋精神，投身超薄机芯的设计和制造，在钟表史上写下美丽的篇章。1957年，伯爵表厂推出着名的9P手动超薄机械腕表，厚度仅为2毫米；1960年，伯爵推出厚度仅有2.3毫米的12P腕表，成为世界最纤薄的自动机械机芯。
伯爵超薄机械机芯的独家技术让品牌在瑞士高级制表业无可争议地享有一席之地。精湛的技术和创新第一的精神激发出创意的火花。伯爵令人目眩神迷的创新设计，为品牌赢得享誉国际的声望，并在奢华腕表与精准性能领域名声鹊起。20世纪60年代，品牌再次显示出扩大生产的雄心，在日内瓦收购了数家金饰车间。
这些表款灵感源于品牌深厚的历史传承，并以浑然有力和极具现代感的方式重新演绎。伯爵对传统的坚持和精湛的机芯制造技术，令其当仁不让被威尼斯市选定为合作伙伴，参加计时历史的传奇见证——威尼斯钟楼的修缮工程。
为顺应企业的蓬勃发展，伯爵表厂在日内瓦的Plan-les-Ouates建立了全新高级制表厂，2001年正式落成启用。制表厂的建立体现了伯爵早在60年代就已制定的富有远见的整体发展战略。在这个效率极高的表厂，同时聚集钟表和珠宝制造部门，与La Cte-aux-Fées表厂的机芯生产业务相互补足。与此同时，伯爵继续投资研发。
短短十余年间，表厂已推出近30款新型机芯，其中包括珍贵的复杂功能机芯，特别是一款陀飞轮机芯、一款双时区计时机芯和一款万年历机芯。而珠宝腕表融入非凡创新理念，令散发自然光泽的美钻更加璀璨炫丽。
这些杰作均体现出伯爵家喻户晓的创新原则，更出色地证明了其创立者一贯秉持的格言：“永远比要求的做得更好”。
4.（瑞士）劳力士 Rolex
品牌名片
品类：腕表
标志风格：庄重、实用、不显浮华
创始人：汉斯·韦尔斯多夫（Hans Wilsdorf）
诞生地：瑞士
诞生时间：1905年
劳力士Rolex的品牌标志是一顶皇冠，以示其在手表领域中的霸主地位，展现着劳力士在制表业的帝王之气。
品牌阅读
The history of Rolex is inextricably linked to the visionary spirit of Hans Wilsdorf， its founder. In 1905， at the age of 24， Hans Wilsdorf founded a company in London specializing in the distribution of timepieces. He began to dream of a watch worn on the wrist. Wrist watches were not very precise at the time， but Hans Wilsdorf foresaw that they could become not only elegant， but also reliable.
Hans Wilsdorf wanted his watches to bear a name that was short， easy to say and remember in any language， and that looked good on watch movements and dials. He said， “I tried combining the letters of the alphabet in every possible way. This gave me some hundred names， but none of them felt quite right. One morning， while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London， a genie whispered‘Rolex in my ear.”Four years later， in 1914， Kew Observatory in Great Britain awarded a Rolex wristwatch a class “A” precision certificate， a distinction which until that point in time had been reserved exclusively for marine chronometers. From that date forward， the Rolex wristwatch was synonymous with precision.
In 1926， the creation by Rolex of the first waterproof and dustproof wristwatch marked a major step forward. Given the name “Oyster”， this watch featured a hermetically sealed case which provided optimal protection for the movement. It is one thing to claim a watch is waterproof. It is quite another to prove it. In 1927， a Rolex Oyster crossed the English Channel， worn by a young English swimmer named Mercedes Gleitze. The swim lasted over 10 hours and the watch remained in perfect working order at the end of it.
In 1953， Sir John Hunts expedition， in which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest， was equipped with Oyster Perpetuals.
In 1971， Rolex presented the Oyster Perpetual Explorer II， dedicated to polar explorers， speleologists and all those pushing the boundaries of exploration. The watch featured a distinctive 24-hour hand， an invaluable aid around the poles and beneath ground when you cant tell night from day.
On March 26th， 2012， filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence James Cameron descended into the Mariana Trench， making the first solo dive into the deepest point on earth and the only dive into the trench since the two-man Trieste expedition of 1960. Only one passenger was on both voyages： a Rolex watch.
In keeping with its history of close ties to motorsports， in 2013 Rolex entered into a long-term partnership with Formula 1 Racing as Official Timekeeper and Official Timepiece.
inextricably [，inikstrikbli] adv.密不可分地
chronometer [krnmt] n.精密记时表；高度精确的钟表
dustproof [dstpruf] adj. 防尘的
hermetically [h：metikli] adv. 密封地，不透气地
descend into向下行
劳力士的历史与其富有远见和开拓精神的创办人汉斯·韦尔斯多夫（Hans Wilsdorf）有着密不可分的关系。1905年，年仅24岁的他便在伦敦开设了钟表销售公司。他幻想将表佩戴在腕上。虽然当时的腕表精准度不足，但汉斯·韦尔斯多夫却能预见到，腕表不但可展示优雅风格，而且精准可靠。
汉斯·韦尔斯多夫希望为腕表取一个精简易读的名字，任何语言都容易记得，而且在腕表机芯和表面上美观悦目。他说：“我几乎尝遍所有字母组合，最终得出数百个名字，但没有一个让我满意。一天早上，我坐在公共马车的上层，途经伦敦市齐普赛街时，我彷佛听到一个声音在耳边低声说道“劳力士”。
