Isaac-Daniel Piguet was born in Le Chenit in the Valley of Joux in 1775. At an early age, he specialised in the manufacturing of expensive and complicated pieces such as watches with carillons and en passant hours and quarters striking clock watches.
He finally settled in Geneva where, in 1811, he formed a partnership with Philippe-Samuel Meylan.
Philippe-Samuel Meylan (1772-1845), a member of a family of renowned watchmakers, was born in Le Brassus. He specialised in the production of very thin watches and became an eminent maker of watches with musical automata.
Piguet et Meylan made musical items of superb quality. Some of the movements were extraordinarily thin and based on the disc or sur plateau format with fan teeth, a system believed to have been invented by Meylan. The majority of the pieces were marked with the initials PM and a serial number.