Edmond Audemars

Edmond Audemars (born December 3, 1882 in Le Brassus , † August 4, 1970 in Paris ) was a Swiss cyclist , aviation pioneer and entrepreneur . He was a great-grandson of the watchmaker Louis-Benjamin Audemars and thus also a distant cousin of Jules-Louis Audemars , who founded the watch manufacturing group Audemars Piguet together with Edward-Auguste Piguet in 1881 .

Edmond Audemars as a permanent world champion in 1903

Cycling

In 1903, Edmond Audemars became world champion amateur stayers in Copenhagen at the age of 21 . As a reward for this World Cup victory, he invited his German pacemaker Werner Krüger to the Zurich luxury hotel " Baur au Lac " and gave him a gold watch. Because of its petite stature, Audemars was called "the little Swiss" in racing circles. He was as adventurous and risk-taking as he was enterprising.

Audemars flies the "Demoiselle"

Audemars as an aviator

From 1907 to 1909 Audemars tried his hand at motorcycling and worked as a representative for “ Motosacoche ” in Berlin , after having been Michelin's representative in Switzerland from 1904 to 1906 . In 1909 he turned to aviation. He bought a “ Demoiselle ” aircraft from Santos-Dumont and obtained the Swiss license (number 7) and the French one (number 100). Audemars' flight instructor was Adolphe Pégoud , the first aviator to loop and inverted flight executed. In 1912 he worked as a reconnaissance pilot in the service of the US Army.

In the same year he flew as chief pilot of the manufacturing plant with a Blériot monoplane from Paris to Berlin. On August 18, 1912, it took off at 5:36 a.m. from the airfield in Issy-les-Moulineaux and wanted to reach Berlin within twelve hours in order to win the Pommery Prize of 100,000 francs. However, he could not keep the planned flight time because on the first day with stopovers in Bochum and Haltern at 4.30 p.m. after ten hours of pure flight time, he had to cancel the operation in Wanne-Eickel and stay overnight. On August 19, he wanted to start again at 5 a.m., but this was delayed until 7:37 a.m. due to thick fog. For the same reason Heinrich Lübbe refrained from accompanying Audemars on part of the route. The flight was delayed again due to bad weather, so that the landing in Berlin did not take place until August 19 at around 6.45 p.m. at the Johannisthal airfield .

“I decided to fly to Berlin only a few days ago and wisely kept my intentions completely secret in Paris. Because if the flight had failed, I would be embarrassed; but since it has succeeded, the Parisians will find out in good time. About my flight itself I can only say that, with the exception of the first 30 km, it was very little favored by the weather. The stopover in Bochum, which you already reported on, was the most difficult of my life. In a place about 100 m square I had to step to the landing in the middle of the city and was also prevented by a telegraph line. [...] This morning I actually had the intention to fly from Wanne directly to Berlin. But since I ran out of petrol, I had to make a stopover in Hanover, which went smoothly in a meadow. I left my machine under supervision and went into town to buy gasoline and visit old friends. When I returned, the police had checked my plane for photographic equipment while I was away, but found nothing suspicious. Only my personal details were recorded, otherwise I was left unmolested. Shortly before Döberitz, on my onward flight, I noticed that I only had 15 liters of petrol left. I didn't want to risk flying over Berlin with such a small supply, so I made a stopover at the airport. I regard this flight as training for the competition for the Pommery Cup, which I will probably apply for next week on the Paris-Berlin route with stopovers in Bonn and Hanover. "

- Interview of the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger with Audemars, quoted in a report in the Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung of August 25, 1912

It was not until June 22, 1913 that he managed to cover the Paris – Berlin route from sunrise to sunset, which earned him the Batschari Prize of 10,000 marks (equivalent to around 54,000 euros today  ).

On September 8, 1915, he set the manned altitude record of 6,600 meters. Up to 1918 Audemars took part in countless flight competitions and shows, also in America. Audemars often invited prominent passengers on a flight, such as B. 1910 the Italian King Viktor Emanuel III. or in 1916 the Spanish King Alfonso XIII.

Audemars and Garros

Audemars was close friends with the French aviator idol Roland Garros . They took part in many air shows together. When Garros, who was active as a military aviator during the First World War , fell into German captivity, Audemars wrote his friend regularly letters. Garros escaped from captivity in 1918 and flew again for the French army. After he was shot down in October 1918, Audemars identified his body. He had also been appointed executor by Garros. Audemars gave up flying in grief over Garros' death.

Professional

As early as 1917 Audemars, who came from a dynasty of watchmakers, had signed a contract with the watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre ; he was also involved in the company. Audemars was friends with Jacques-David LeCoultre from childhood. His experience contributed to the development of special chronometers, for example for pilots and drivers, as well as instruments for cars and airplanes. In 1926 he set up a branch in New York and in 1932 initiated business relations with the Soviet Union. Until his retirement in 1952, he worked for the company up to management level. He died unmarried.

Awards

• 1922 Legion of Honor
• 1959 Médaille de l'Aéronautique
• 1962 Médaille d'or des Arts, Sciences et Lettres et diplôme
• 1963 Médaille d'argent de la Ville de Paris et diplôme
• 1963 honorary member of the Swiss Aéro Club
• 1964 Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class

literature

• Walter Boßhardt; Henry Eggenberger: Fate of racing drivers . Vignettes and graphic design: Alex Walter Diggelmann, Zurich: Kurmann 1950
• Gilbert Marion / AZ: Audemars, Edmond. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

• Pionnair.ge (French)
• Aviatechno.free.fr
• Edmond Audemars in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Publications by and about Edmond Audemars in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Unige.ch ( Memento from August 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) The great-grandfather of Edmond Audemars, Pierre Henri Audemars, was the grandfather of Jules-Louis Audemars. The descriptions in the sources show that Edmond Audemars came from a high background and was financially well off.
2. ↑ Lt. This “chronometer” was later stolen from Krüger in the illustrated cycling sport of August 25, 1929 in a bus in Berlin. Audemars then had a new watch made and handed it over to journalist Fredy Budzinski during the UCI Track World Championships in 1929 so that he could pass it on to Krüger. Lt. Boßhardt / Eggenberger is said to have been the pacemaker Albert Käser, but in contemporary sources Krüger is named as the pacemaker at the 1903 World Cup.
3. ↑ ^{a b} From the long-distance flight Paris – Berlin of the pilot Audemars. In:  Oesterreichische Kronen-Zeitung. Illustrirtes Tagblatt / Illustrierte Kronen-Zeitung / Wiener Kronen-Zeitung , August 24, 1912, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).
4. ↑ Illustrated Cycling Express , November 25, 1947
5. ↑ ^{a b} Paris – Berlin. :  Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung , year 1912, p. 1158f. (Online at ANNO ).
6. ↑ This figure was based on the template: Inflation determined, has been rounded to a full thousand EUR and relates to January 2020.
7. ↑ Notes. In:  Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung , July 20, 1913, p. 79 (online at ANNO ).
8. ↑ (note without title). In:  Neues Wiener Journal , September 21, 1915, p. 19 (online at ANNO ).
9. ^ New York Times v. November 22, 1913 (English) Page no longer available , search in web archives: Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Spanish)
10. ↑ Montresanciennes.fr
11. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Le Coultre.info (French)