Hello to all and a warm welcome on the WATCHEStv. Today I am very delighted to share with you
one of our walkthrough videos. This time, we'll be visiting
the new Audemars Piguet museum set in Le Brassus, in the beautiful Vallée de Joux
home of complicated watchmaking. This new setup, actually, with groups and things
that previously existed, obviously, some new ones. The layout is totally different
and so is the experience of going through it. Part of it now found in a gorgeous spiral-looking structure
designed by Danish superstar architect, Bjarke Ingels. You can definitely feel the link between
the heritage of the brand and its future. Restoration department still found in the historic building. Then a time capsule voyage in the history of AP, including
some of its most iconic, precious, and relevant timepieces, but also the presence of its super complication watch department. Let's go for the visits, but I just wanted to point out
that we won't show you all that can be seen. You still have to come and discover this by yourself. You can also trust us to show you a few things
that you wouldn't necessarily be able to see were you come. We have our little privileges,
but the important part is being able to share them with you. Enjoy. Thanks for having us here.
I had the privilege of coming to the previous museum. Here we are in this absolutely stunning and gorgeous place. Can you explain to us a little bit better,
the concept behind this new building? It's tying it back to tradition at all times
in the most meaningful of ways. This is why the museum is entirely bathed in light and why you're constantly looking at the Vallée de Joux
no matter where you are in the space. This is putting the visitor in the mindset of the watchmaker, shortening that distance between the watch on your wrist
and the men and women that create it. The museum gives us that simultaneous past,
present, and future experience in doing so because you're looking out at the same views
that Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet looked out and that the watchmakers today look at. You're bathed in the same light that they work in. That's a critical aspect of this whole experience. Isn't just the objects, it's the cultural context
and the empathy of the men and women who create these objects. The idea that Sebastian and I had was,
could we create an exhibition? Could we create this story where a watch expert
can come in with somebody new to this field, with the same tour guide, and each come out with
a meaningful experience that touches them simultaneously. We love watch and clock museums, but we also love art
and design and culture in all kinds of other fields and disciplines. We wanted this space to have that feeling, to have that texture, and to be memorable for everybody. Everybody in the family coming. That was a real critical element and approach but really
that empathy to the men and women creating the watches. That's very much at the heart of the exhibition as well,
which we'll take a closer look at, I'm sure. Let's go for a walk. Less than 10 families set and stood in the Vallée de Joux
during centuries and married each other and created a network. That was probably the reason why
they could develop these complications, sharing secrets, and marrying each other
to get the secrets of the neighbor. Like we do today, going out of the valley
to learn new information and bring it back in. I remember you told me Jules Audemars' great uncle
Louis Audemars had eight children who were all sent to different watchmakers
to learn different techniques to bring it back into the family, which was such great insight. This watch is extremely special for many reasons. The first one I would say is that it's the oldest known
watch from the Vallée de Joux that is signed. We have looked in every museums, everywhere for a watch signed in the 18th century
by a watchmaker from the Vallée de Joux. Nothing. This one was. "Why?" We asked. It signed Joseph Piguet. The reason is very simple. It is still owned by the grand, grand, grand, grand,
grand, grandson of the watchmaker who made it. It was not made to be sold. It was made to be kept in the family and we have the register. We see that Joseph Piguet is accepted in 1769. We consider based on that that this is his masterpiece. He had to flex. He had to prove his worth to be entered into that exclusive club and exactly Sebastian said, when you put
the data together, all falls into place. This is also paying respect and paying tribute to
the watchmakers before and at the time of the foundation of AP. We don't pretend AP was the creator of watchmaking
in the Vallée de Joux or in Switzerland, we just paid tribute to the people who made it possible to happen. Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet
were part of this network. They were members of this ecosystem. After discovering parts of what makes the Vallée de Joux so special, the links between families,
this focus from the start on complicated watchmaking. Well, will now go in another pedagogical section of the museum with the goal of making you understand in a rather fun
and a pleasant way how a timepiece actually works. To exemplify this well, Audemars Piguet, a mandated, a famous Swiss automatons specialist Mr. François Junod to develop a mechanical allegory
showing you the three distinct parts of any movement that required stored energy, to gear trains,
and associated indication of time passing by here represented by this a walker
on his quest for fresh mushrooms. Finally, how the energy is liberated regularly
to achieve this precisely, steadily, and repeatedly. Then we get to see our large mock-up example
of proper watchmaking regulating organs, including the tourbillon or the double balance wheel, and compared to the minute size of
these components found in your watch. Well here, you will definitely get
a better understanding of how they operate. Let's now move on to the center part of the exhibition. This is where we talk about the complications.
This is the heart of Audemars Piguet. In the 19th century, 75% of the watches made by AP
were complicated watches, and 50% were repeaters. A lot this project was simultaneously worked on while Sebastian and I were writing
the historical complications book for Audemars Piguet, which was about our 20th-century complicated wristwatches. It was fortunate because we were doing the research
and the writing and the study. At the same time, we were working
on the curation of this exhibition as well. It was really able for us to bring that new knowledge
and to tie it here into the exhibitions and the storytelling. We knew right away, we wanted to see
a historic repeater from the 1920s wristwatch right nearby one from the 1990s and early 2000s. We wanted to show this continuity in a very real way. It's very much part of the narrative when the visitors come through. They're able to have that sense of continuity. During this process, there was something else happening. The Universal, the most complicated pocket watch
we made was under restoration. It was not yet owned by AP. That was a very long process. It took time. It took four years to the best watchmakers of the company
to restore and to make this masterpiece functional again. It was made in 1899, the blanc by Louis Elisée Piguet. The "Établissage" system is very well represented in this watch. The movement was finished by AP and sold to Union Glashütte. Union Glashütte cased it and change the chronograph. The chronograph, which is one of the most complex
in the world did not work. It was transformed by Union Glashütte. What we're looking at here is a different category. This goes beyond the grand complication;
they're referred to often as ultra or super complicated watches. The most famous one is, of course, the grave super complication. Like this watch, it's that one assign Patek Phillipe. They were absolutely the ones overseeing, but it was also like this, a watch that required
many different talents and know-hows to put together. This watch predates that by a couple of decades. The key takeaway here is back to what we spoke about earlier. In 1899, when this was created, this was
at the apex of science and technology and what was capable, what people were able to do. In terms of mechanical technologies and complications and functions, there was no object like this before yet many did follow afterwards. You said that you had these very creative,
talented people in unexpected geography pulling together their collective talent
to create things that were entirely new and unexpected; building on previous knowledge
but also introducing entirely new approaches. Interestingly, Audemars Piguet, there was also
that startup aspect of Jules and Edouard themselves and what they sought to create in the creation
of a truly independent company whose destiny would remain here in the Vallée de Joux. Everything is unique before 1951. Then you have similar watches,
and then it was a determination of analysis. That's where Francisco and our late colleague,
the great Angelo Manzoni, Sebastian, myself, the whole Heritage team, that's when we started to really analyze
the watches based on condition. We wanted the pieces here to be the best examples in terms of originality and in terms of scholarship,
in terms of clarity of archives. That ultimately helped dictate some of the choices that we were making. You can have three beautiful calendar watches from the same decade. The one that's going to be here on exhibition is going to be the one with the preserve dial, unrestored ideally, or if it's restored, done with absolute historic sensitivity. That was a big, big job, especially for the restoration workshop. Next. Immersive section. What we wanted to do in these sections is look at
each time period of Audemars Piguet watchmaking, but contextualize it with the architecture of the time, the fashion of the time, the transportation of the time, the textures, the feel, as well as who in the company was driving it, which member of the Audemars Piguet families
were moving things forward. These clusters really take that notion
of cultural dialogue and amplifies it in a way that we hadn't ever seen before in a watch museum. That's something Sebastian and I
really were committed to taking place. This falls into that idea
where you don't have to be an expert of watchmaking to understand what's going on here in these clusters. You can look at the pieces, look at the context,
and everything starts to fall into place. This watch was made by AP based on the "Établissage" system so many other people and small workshops here and sold to Don & Son, a British watchmaker in London. London was the center of the world at the time. From London, they could get access to the royalties and all the important personalities of the world. This is the way it happened. Connection between local and international. You're looking at the only known hunter case,
double-sided enamel repeater that we have in the collection. We're yet to discover a second one. The archives could be very specific, but it won't always be so specific on an enamel decoration if it was in the front or in the back. The one over here was quite a discovery, and it also speaks to your notion of time because this would have been an absolute labor of love and various different expertise is required to create that piece here depicting a couple of scenes from Napoleon's story. It was an absolutely fascinating duo of watches speaking to very culturally specific but in two very, very different ways approaching that global sense that Audemars Piguet was already instilling
very, very early on in the company. We acquired that, not that long ago,
just a couple of years ago at auction. I had to go a little over budget there. He was sweating a little bit, but we couldn’t let it go. I said to Sebastian, "You know what? If we need to explain to the board, they're going to understand, but nobody challenged it or question it, they got it. This was, as he said, "The first time we're seeing a double-sided enamel repeater with this fascinating international story bringing France, Prussia, Germany, Switzerland, all into one scope." That's Audemars Piguet. That was why it had to be part of this collection
and needed to be shared with everybody. Let's continue our walk. This is one of my favorite showcases. It's so well balanced. Each watch is a masterpiece of elegance and technicity. It shows that design actually really started with artdeco with wristwatches. Before the pocket watches were all round and rarely sign. The design of the movement was different
from one watchmaker to the other one, but the case was not really meaningful. Here, we see cushion shape. We see rectangle, round. We see the work on the lugs, on the tonneau-shape. Everything is so finely made. You're looking at one of the earliest known skeletonized wristwatches, not just from Audemars Piguet but industry-wide, one of the earliest known. You're looking at one of only 35 minute repeaters
created by Audemars Piguet in the vintage era. Quite interesting Marc. One topic of study that Sebastian
and I were able to demonstrate and prove. It's published in the complications book was the close link between women's pendant minute repeaters and the birth of the minute repeating wristwatch. Something that I'd theorized for a long time; we were able to prove it together that the minute repeating wristwatch
was a direct evolution of the woman's pendant watch. The miniaturization had been mastered. It had been accomplished, and then, boom. Of those 35, six of those movements were recased
pendant watches into wristwatches. A lot of great stories, again, not just about Audemars Piguet but about the industry. We're able to look at through something like this, early jump hour watches, which still remain popular today. We're looking at one from 1930 created just after the Depression. Over here is a watch that you've documented, that's very well-documented, the 5516, which was Audemars Piguet’s first perpetual calendar and wristwatch and the world's first perpetual calendar wristwatch with leap year indication. This one is from the second series of watches produced in 1957, but it's not the watch I specifically want to talk about. I want you to take a particular note of the finishing. Here, you can see a balance of mirror and satin finishing. Sebastian and I have documented that we start to see this quite consistently in the 1910s. Those finishing techniques had been done on movements, but when the pocket watch evolved to the wristwatch, some of those techniques of the hand-finishing
were then applied to the cases. This is that notion you'd likely hear Audemars Piguet talk about
that play of light. It's really understood and recognized through the lens of the Royal Oak, and that watch absolutely amplified that play of light and that combination of satin and mirror finishing. Genta was an absolute genius to approach it in such a way. However, the techniques themselves had been in the company
for over half a century prior. As original and as iconic as the Royal Oak is, the elements that comprise it had already very much been
part of the culture of hand finishing at Audemars Piguet. Another thing a lot of people don't realize with Genta was he was primarily a designer of women's watches for some of his career, at least with Audemars Piguet. Many of the creations that we celebrate here in the museum are women's watches he created in the 1960s. What makes the Royal Oak work so well was that he applied those approaches to women's watches into this watch in terms of the feel, the ergonomics, the texture, and the finishing. We associate Royal Oak as a masculine design, but secretly, underneath, there's feminine design codes throughout. You hear people talk about it, "Hey, look how it catches the light." They could be speaking about a gemstone or a diamond or the descending links, the art deco aesthetics, the combination of finishing techniques. What makes that watch so successful was that he, Gérald Genta, had such experience with women's watches and creating watches that not just look beautiful but feel great on the wrist. Genta designed the icon, he designed the one, but every other Royal Oak after really through the '70s and through the mid-'80s, Jacqueline Dimier was the principal designer behind those watches. She was the one who created the women's versions in 76, the white gold two-tone, yellow gold in 77, the complications in 84, the first perpetual. It's Genta, of course, the key, the element of that story, but Jacqueline Dimier also deserves an immense amount of respect for the way she was able to expand that original design into creations, which are still celebrated today. All right, let's continue with, again, some kind of interactive part of the museum where you'd be able to test a few things by yourself, grasp even more the complexity of watch movement, but also where you will find the prestigious
super complication department of the brand. It was critical for us to demonstrate-- Sebastian mentioned earlier that transmission of knowledge but through the highest expertise and the most important watches we produce. We wanted to filter that message specifically through the grand complication workshop. At Audemars Piguet, the grand complication
is defined as needing to have minute repeater, split-second chronograph,
and perpetual calendar altogether. That's our definition as it was established historically
by the company and it remains so. We have six watchmakers. They're creating unique watches, one at a time, 648 components. They're individual works. The watchmaker is tied to those works for as long as they're here with the company, essentially managing the future of those watches as long as they're here if there's ever servicing or repair that's needed. We really wanted to bring that workshop, not a simulation, not an element of it but the complete actual workshop here into this space to bring that proximity on one side to the historic watches and on the other side to the valley and to the light. These watchmakers are also creating unique grand complications. We're echoing the grand comps, but we're also echoing the fact that everything was unique until 1951. These works are done one at a time, customer involvement, different form language, different materials, different movement finishings, a whole wide range of customization, which is looking to watches in the future, but honoring those finishing techniques and the approach of the past. Who says operational department; This implies that you will find behind the scenes special rooms with some of the machines needed for the team of watchmakers to manufacture and adjust some parts and components needed for the realization of their timepieces; obviously, something you won't be able to see here on your visit. Now for big Royal Oak aficionados. When these monolith come to life, you will probably see the most complete and dense collection of the iconic timepiece, a real alley dedicated to the famous model. Here you have a collection of 89, Royal Oak, Royal Oak Offshore and Royal Oak Concept in showcases that weight 950 kilos each and that display in a very transparent manner, the history of all these three collections starting with the Royal Oak Jumbo and its various interpretations from 1972 up to the 21st century. We have never shown that, all the variations of 39 millimeter, ultra-thin self-winding Royal Oaks. Here it is, and it starred this incredible collection. You'll even see watches that are still in production. As soon as watches discontinued, it officially becomes the province of the Audemars Piguet Museum. That heritage isn't separate from what we do, it's so central to what we do. It's really exciting because this last two points in the grand complication workshop and this exhibition is the continuing opportunity for Sebastian and I to work together, even though I'm working on new products, he's representing the history, this exhibition in the grand comp workshop literally bring it back together. Because as soon as the concept is discontinued and is no longer being sold, the prototype comes over here where it just gets curated and the story is told. We also have a few models that are an active production as well. How cool is it to be at a museum and to see an object that you also have? This is a rare experience, when we go to the Louvre, when we go to the Met, the Hermitage, the British Museum, it's not so often, we own something that's on exhibition. We want to do, again, create that personal connection that people can have, "Hey, wait, I have that watching my collection. Oh, how cool." That real intimacy that happens. We knew we wanted to end here in this spiral with those three chapters. 1972 Royal Oak, 1993 Offshore, 2002 concept in order. Now we're going to jump into the historical parts of this fantastic space. This is where I have to leave you guys. Michael has to leave us, but I'm in pretty good hands. You're in the best of hands to see the historic building. I wish I could continue on, but I'm back over to the new watches. I'm jumping over there to get back to what we're creating for tomorrow. Gentlemen. Absolutely. Before getting access to some rather privileged places, I just wanted to show you something else, where you normally start to visit and where you get a better understanding of what has been done with the construction of this new place, how carefully the historic part has been restored, how top quality materials have been used and simply demonstrating that no corners have been cut. They went all the way, and you do get this feeling when going through it. There's nothing pretentious or in your face. It just has been done very properly with some good thinking and more importantly with some good taste. Let's now go and visit the actual restoration department of AP, which worked on most of the timepieces as seen in the main exhibition hall. Something also usually closed for the visit, but, well, you know us. We are in the restoration workshop, a very, very important place where four highly talented watchmakers preserve the know-how, this old know-how but also the old watches from the heritage collection but also from our clients. One of these masters is Francisco, Francisco Pasandin. That was quite something. After leaving the inspiring people of this restoration department, now it was time to see another slightly special archive room as well as live in the flesh some of these incredible historical timepieces, again, something not always on the menu when you come and visit AP. Sebastian explain us where we are here. We are here in the registers' room. It's a very important place because this is where we keep all the historical registers covering the whole production of AP from 1875. Actually, 1882 because we still look for the first register. Let's have a look. I told you Audemars Piguet was a small company. It was, in fact, because the first hundred years production covers that, then they expanded, and until today, we have someone writing by hand every single watch that is produced and delivered. If we think the very first register, the oldest we have. First page, 13 watches, out of which, all our complications, and nine are minute repeaters. It really shows where we're from and a few clients. Here, for example, we have the first-page Vacheron Constantin. Michael told you this was a network, and this register covers 25 years. The whole production of AP during 25 years is here. Is in this book? Yes. Small production. This is a place where we also have time and the silence needed to hear repeaters. That's a repeaters from 1895. It's always an emotion to hear that. To think that 130 years ago, craftsmen have been able to produce this object of beauty, in terms of sound, in terms of decoration, but also precision. This is a bit more recent, the artdeco style. Complete calendar jumping hour in platinum. This one was made in 1912. The size is amazing. This is a minute repeater. Nine and a half lines; one of the thinnest in the world. It's very fast. It's hurrying a little bit. It's a late repeater. AP made very, very few jumping seconds in its history. All were made in 19th century, and I did not find more than 10. We have one in the complication section and the second one here because we want to share to see the beauty of this very small hand jumping. Pitifully, we cannot make it work in the museum itself. These objects are too delicate and too precious. That would be a dream to show that to everybody and a few other examples that I took that we like to share with our guests. A coin watch, an ultra-thin piece from the 1970s. The whole industry was in very big trouble. In 10 years, two-thirds of the employment in Swiss watchmaking disappeared, and meanwhile, in parallel with the Royal Oak and the perpetual calendar, ultra-thin from 1978. AP continued to produce ultra-thin open-work watches. It's a unique piece again. You can teach watchmaking with this watch, everything is visible. All the material that could be removed to see the inside of the movement has been removed. The coin watch from the late 1990s. After 100 years of tradition building coin watches, this is one of the latest. It was made with an open-work movement. AP is known for Royal Oak but has a very long history, and very creative in the field of ladies' watches. This contains the smallest mechanism in the world in 1927. There was a competition between neighbors, Jaeger-LeCoultre vs Audemars Piguet. Who would be the thinnest? Who would be the smallest? In 1927, AP came with this incredibly small movement. Two years later, Caliber 101 was created by LeCoultre and company. AP decided that-- That was it.
We leave them now. Exactly. We leave them because we had the thinnest, and we kept with the thinnest. Just before finishing the visit, I really want to show you a very special room where some lucky people will be able to enjoy private watchmaking and other craft lessons, and this part is not yet fully operational, but I can already totally see myself on these benches and feeling just right in this rather inspiring environment. So Marc André, here we are. Sebastian, it was a pleasure. Thank you very much for the visits. Thank you for this walkthrough. This is a absolutely gorgeous place. I know I repeat myself a little bit but it is. Thank you so much for coming for your appreciation. Our best reward is the pleasure we can share, and you can bring some people also. We'll do that. Everybody is welcome. Alright. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Bye. I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough as much as we did. The bar has been set quite high as you could witness, and you can naturally all come and visit this new museum. That's the entire point of this place, and the journey is really worth it, but please, remember that you can't simply drop by. You need to register for it. Everything is explained on their website. You will find the link in the description box below. All the very best to you. See you real soon and Viva Watchmaking! And Viva the Vallée de Joux.
