Much has been said about the Swiss watch industry’s habit of raiding the history books in search of long-gone watchmakers whose names are ripe to exploit. But in all honesty, some names deserve to be exploited. That’s certainly true of Czapek & Cie, a 2-year-old company founded on the legacy of François Czapek, a Czech-born Polish émigré who arrived in Switzerland in 1832 after the fall of the Polish insurrection.

An accomplished watchmaker, Czapek famously partnered with Antoine Norbert de Patek, a…