For almost 150 years, S.T. Dupont has been synonymous with luxury – combining creativity, uncompromising quality and unique expertise passed down from generation to generation.
Learn all about our Maison's fascinating history in a few key dates!
THE BEGINNINGS
As Napoleon III’s photographer and a pioneering spirit with a keen eye for aesthetics, in 1872, aged just 25, Simon Tissot Dupont opened his first leatherwork shop in Paris.
His personalised travel trunks soon became the ultimate accessory for Europe’s elite. The leading shops of the late nineteenth century, such as the Grand Magasins du Louvre, selected him as a supplier, and personalities such as Eugénie de Montijo ordered her vanity case from Dupont.
A WORKSHOP IN FAVERGES
Lucien and André, Simon Tissot Dupont’s sons, took the reins in 1919 and decided in 1924 to move the Parisian workshop to the family home in Faverges, in Haute-Savoie. With the new workshop located beside Lake Annecy, Europe’s purest lake, S.T. Dupont products are manufactured in one of France’s most remarkable natural environments.
THE INNOVATIONS THAT MADE THE MAISON FAMOUS
In 1930, Lucien Tissot Dupont developed an entirely new tanning technique using diamond powder to give S.T. Dupont’s leather even greater durability and suppleness. This means that the leather can withstand heat, humidity and the trials of travelling. This sophisticated technique is still used for the Diamond Soft range.
After recruiting Georges Novossiltzeff in 1935, S.T. Dupont became the first luxury Maison to master the Asian lacquer technique on metal – and has held the secret ever since.
The two Tissot Dupont brothers also illustrated their entrepreneurial spirit and ability to reinvent when they developed the first luxury petrol lighter during the Second World War; the Maharaja of Patiala was among the first customers to adopt this brand-new product. Shortly afterwards, in 1952, the first luxury gas lighter was developed: the “D57”. This technical revolution offered the unique ability to adjust the intensity of the flame using a little lever on the burner.
Following a request from Jackie Kennedy Onassis and keen to satisfy its demanding clientele, in 1973 the Maison S.T. Dupont designed the first luxury ballpoint pen, the “Classique S.T. Dupont”.
In 2017, on the first lighter’s 75th anniversary, S.T. Dupont revealed the world’s first complication lighter. Resembling gold and palladium lace and simultaneously powerful and delicate, this metal paradox comprising 200 parts is protected by a secret code with visible working parts. With both a double flame and torch flame, this illustration of the Faverges artisans’ skills took four years to design and produce.
S.T. DUPONT: THE “TRUNK-MAKER OF KINGS”
In 1934, the press hailed the Maison as the “trunk-maker of kings”.
Blue bloods, cinema legends, fashion icons, wealthy industrials and politicians, all the greatest names would come to the Parisian headquarters where Lucien and his staff welcomed them as they should. Nothing was too beautiful or extravagant.
The Maison’s famous clients included Wallis Simpson, who ordered a custom travel trunk in 1945.
Two years later, the iconic “Bogie” was born when Hollywood star Humphrey Bogart asked S.T. Dupont’s artisans to create a lightweight travel bag for flights and weekends aboard his yacht, Santana. That same year, S.T. Dupont crafted its very last travel trunk for Queen Elizabeth II, to celebrate her wedding with the Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1953, André Tissot Dupont designed the Riviera handbag with its secret compartment for Audrey Hepburn.
Closely linked to the world of art, S.T. Dupont has engaged in numerous collaborations.
A passion for producing the finest in luxury products. A design atelier where ideas and innovation are brought to life and where quality rings true. A heritage dating back to 1872, where France’s most brilliant artisans are chosen to revive unique crafts of the past to create the exclusive and the exceptional.
A COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
We team technology with expertise to create quality products, individually designed and crafted to last. Objects of beauty and the heirlooms of the future.
TIMELESS SKILLS
A workshop where our talented artisans bring their innovation to seventeen rare skills, harnessing technology to turn cutting edge materials into distinctive objects of desire.
1) ENGRAVING
Fine engraving techniques such as guilloche are one of S.T. Dupont’s signature skills. Precision techniques, micro mechanics and fine diamond-tipped tools are used to heighten the brilliance of the finished product, cutting and faceting it like a precious stone.
2) LACQUERING
A classic craft, revived by S.T. Dupont’s craftsmen, to produce exquisite, lacquered objects, blending the finesse of natural lacquer with its natural strength and resilience. Skilled lacquerers painstakingly apply up to ten layers of lacquer to create the perfect high tolerance finish.
3) EXQUISITE LEATHERWORK
With a choice of the finest natural leathers from Europe, our master leatherworkers choose a specific leather for each product. From rare hides to finely textured leather, each S.T. Dupont leather product reflects the unique nature of the leather used in its creation.
4) PRECIOUS METALS
The alchemy of turning metal into precious metal involves a number of precision processes, finely controlled to ensure that the finish of each product is perfectly regular and consistent before the final touches are made. From original hand-electroplating processes to automatic technology, each S.T. Dupont object is painstakingly prepared and plated to create a precious object of beauty.
5) TESTING
Innovation for us is nothing without reliability. We set exacting standards for our products, and test them relentlessly to ensure they perform under pressure. Making exceptional products is about ensuring they live up to their exceptional reputation in even the most challenging circumstances.
S.T. Dupont has always been closely linked to the art world.
In 1962, famous artist Pablo Picasso chose three of his S.T. Dupont lighters and engraved their lacquer: a harlequin and a Pierrot for his son and his daughter-in-law, and a fawn which he gifted to a friend.
S.T. Dupont showcased its ability to create true works of art combining creativity and craftsmanship with the Andy Warhol limited edition (2004), as well as an exceptional gold lighter inspired by the baroque style of Louis XIII and designed by his descendant, Princess Tania Sophie de Bourbon Parme (2013). Adorned with 152 sapphires totalling more than 41 carats, The Guinness Book of Records declared this unique lighter the most expensive in the world.
With the great names of cinema as clients, the company is of course associated with many illustrious films: more than a decade in partnership with the most famous secret agent, James Bond, and three limited-edition collections combining elegant style with technical innovation. The most recent, for Spectre in 2015, features a lighter pierced by a bullet hole – a world first for this exclusive design.
Also in 2015, George Lucas’s “Star Wars” entered a new dimension with the spectacular limited edition inspired by both the Light and the Dark Side of the Force. The collection included the world’s only levitating writing implement!
The year 2017 brought two new cinematographic collaborations, one for “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and the other for “Murder on the Orient Express”.
Our Maison continues to innovate with collections that reflect current events: in 2021 the Cohiba 55 line celebrated the anniversary of the famous cigar brand with its Indian Head logo; with the Space Odyssey limited edition, S.T. Dupont put its own spin on the space race.
Due to its outstanding heritage, S.T. Dupont was granted the prestigious “Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant” - Living Heritage Company - label in 2012. The French government awards this label to companies with exceptional artisanal or industrial expertise.
