The oldest watch brand is Blancpain, founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain. Jehan-Jacques was born in 1693 in Villeret, Switzerland, where he made precision watch parts for other manufacturers from a workshop in his house.

Within 12 months, demand was so high that he had to take on several apprentices and move to larger business premises. He started making exclusive luxury pocket watches, employing local residents and extra staff from outside the area.

One famous early customer was King Louis XVI of France, who commissioned a luxury inscribed Blancpain pocket watch in the late 18th century.

The brand's most famous collection is the iconic Fifty Fathoms, widely recognised as the first modern diving watch when launched in 1953. The Blancpain Air Command, also released in the 1950s, was the most important pilots' chronograph of the era.

The 18th-century watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet is credited with inventing the tourbillon, the hairspring and the keyless winding system for pocket watches. Many of the innovations used in luxury watches today may never have been invented without his creative genius.

Born in Neuchâtel, Prussia, in 1747, he became a watchmaker's apprentice at 15. At age 28, he set up his own watchmaking business at Quai de l'Horloge in Paris in 1775. He launched the first self-winding watch, known as "Perpétuelle", in 1780.

His inventions included the "gong-spring" in 1783 for repeating watches. His achievements were recognised when he became a Master of the Guild of Watchmakers and Clockmakers in 1784.

He invented the ratchet key, known as the "Breguet key", in 1789, the anti-shock "pare-chute" device in 1790 and "Jump Seconds" watches in 1791. He patented the famous "tourbillon regulator" in 1801 and released it in 1805.

Piaget has a reputation for creating ultra-slim watches with exceptional precision. The brand was launched in La Côte-aux-Fées, Switzerland, in 1874 by Georges-Édouard Piaget, who set up his first workshop at 19. He lived by the ethos, "Always do better than necessary."

His skills led to the growth of the watchmaking dynasty, Maison Piaget, in the Neuchâtel region. Georges-Édouard's son, Timothée Piaget, took over the family business in 1911 and transformed the brand into a global empire.

Piaget's first ultra-thin, hand-wound watch with a mechanical movement, the Calibre 9P, boasting a thickness of only 2 mm, was launched in 1957. One of the most popular Piaget men's watches is the Emperador, first launched in 1957 and relaunched in 1999.

Finely set with diamonds, its ultra-thin complication movements and tourbillons have led to a price tag of around £1 million for some models.

Bvlgari was launched in 1884 by Greek silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris, who was born in the village of Kalarites in 1857. One of 11 children living in an impoverished region, he learned his trade from his grandfather, Constantine.

Voulgaris' story was a true rags-to-riches one. He travelled alone to Italy in 1880 to seek his fortune. After working hard as a jewellery-maker for four years, he had saved enough money to open his own small shop at 28 Via Condotti in Rome.

He called his business "S Bulgari", a different spelling of his surname commonly used at the time. The brand later became known as Bvlgari, based on the classical Latin alphabet, using a "V" is instead of "U".

Initially, he specialised in fine hand-crafted jewellery. One of his most famous pieces, a unique trumpet-shaped ring called the Trombino, became a top seller in Rome and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Its huge success enabled Bvlgari to expand, opening new stores across Italy.