Luxury Watch Brand Pronunciation | The Watch Club by SwissWatchExpo

With hundreds of years of fine watchmaking tradition, Switzerland and Germany are two of the world’s watchmaking hubs. Hence, the world’s biggest watch brands are in their native language – French or German. If you do not speak those languages, then you have probably wondered about proper watch brand pronunciation at some point.

Part of being a seasoned watch collector is knowing a brand inside and out, and that of course, starts with properly pronouncing their names. All of us have stumbled over Audemars Piguet or mumbled our way through Jaeger LeCoultre, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. We’ve compiled a cheat sheet of horology speak for you. Here’s how to pronounce the world’s top luxury watch brands.

A. Lange & Söhne: AH LANG-eh und ZUH-neh
Note the German pronunciation of the ampersand

Audemars Piguet: OOH-deh-maghr Pi-GEH
This is most commonly pronounced as Oh-duh-mars Pi-gay but its syllables are shorter and swifter, with a silent S

Baume & Mercier: BOHM eh Mehr-SYEY
Resist the urge to say Mer-si-yay!

Bedat: bid-UT

Blancpain: Blohng-PAHN

Breguet: BREH-geh

Breitling: BREIHT-ling

Bulgari: bull-gar-EE

Cartier: Cahr-tyeh
Not Car-dee-yay as it’s usually pronounced. Again, the French pronunciation is swift and short.

Chanel: Sha-nel

Chopard: Sho-pahr

Corum: Coh-room

Ebel: Ee-bell

Franck Muller: Fronk Mew-ler

Frederique Constant: Freh-deh-REEK Cohn-STOHN

Girard-Perregaux: Zhi-RAHR Peh-reh-GOH

Glashütte Original: Glahs-OHH-teh Oh-rih-hi-NAHL
The German pronunciation would include “Original” with the G pronounced as H

Hublot: Oo-bloh
The H here is silent.

IWC Schaffhausen: Ee-veet-zee Shaf-HAU-sen
While it is perfectly acceptable to pronounce it as IWC (after all, it stands for International Watch Company) German and French pronounciation would go as above.

Jaeger LeCoultre: Zhe-ZHEH(r) Lih-COULT(reh)
Most people would pronounce this as Yay-ger Le-coolt-re, but the R is in fact, silent.

Longines: Loh-ZHEEN

Montblanc: Mohn-bloh

Omega: Oh-MEH-gah

Panerai: Pah-ne-RAI

Patek Philippe: Pah-TEK Fih-LEEP

Philippe Charriol: Fih-LEEP Shar-yohl

Piaget: PYAH-zhey

Raymond Weil: Ray-mund WHILE

Richard Mille: REE-sharh MEEL

Roger Dubuis: Roh-ZHAY Dub-WEE

Rolex: Ro-lex

TAG Heuer: TAG HOY-eh(r)

Ulysse Nardin: Ooh-LEESE Nahr-DAHN

Vacheron Constantin: VASH-er-AHN Kohn-stahn-tahn

Zenith: Zeh-NITH