A low-pitched bell for each hour. Two medium-pitched bells for each quarter-hour and a single, higher-pitched bell for each minute of the final quarter hour. These are the crystalline sounds that ring out on demand, at the heart of Audemars Piguet timepieces.

This highly complicated mechanism was created by Dominique Burdet’s team in the Grand Complications Workshop at the Manufacture in Brassus. “We produce the Jules Audemars and Royal Oak minute repeaters, as well as a pocket model. Each watch requires between 700 and 1,000 hours of work, which means we rarely make more than three per year and per watchmaker,” says master watchmaker Burdet, who has worked for the brand in the Vallée de Joux for almost 20 years.

The movement parts are delivered unfinished, then polished and assembled one by one. The slightest error would have repercussions on the melody of time. “To create a beautiful sound, you need a lot of experience and expertise. The watch is patiently tuned, like a musical instrument, and must always strike the correct number of times. To accomplish this you must arm the movement with enough force to power a spring that operates the hour, the quarter-hours, the half-hour and the minutes that follow,” he explains.

For the past few years, the interest of collectors and enthusiasts in this type of model has grown, particularly for the pocket watch which now has a waiting list. “Owners regularly visit our workshop. They love to tell us about their relationship with their minute repeater, the pleasure they get from hearing it ring and from surprising their family and friends with it,” Burdet says with a smile.

At the end of a long, brightly lit corridor in Manufacture Audemars Piguet at Brassus, the sound of ticking resonates continuously. The noise is far too rapid and loud to come from watch movements – it is generated by machines which perform the guillochage of Royal Oak’s dial. In other words, they make the weaving pattern that forms the square and lozenge motif of “Grand Tapisserie”. This highly intricate guillochage captures the light and accentuates the timepiece’s geometric relief.

“The brass dial is engraved by a burin (a precision metalwork chisel) that reproduces the motif on a disc attached to the machine, like a pantograph. A pointer rotates across the disc from the periphery to the centre. The system is combined with a tool that forms the little lozenges between the squares,” explains engineer Nicholas Prost, who heads the decorative engraving project. The process takes between 20 and 50 minutes, depending on the dial’s diameter. It’s a delicate operation. A mere skip is all it takes to damage the piece as the slightest impact is as visible as dust on a mirror. As the ‘piquetage’ gets closer to the circle’s centre, the rhythm gets faster and hails the birth of a brand new dial, ready to be sent out for the finishing processes.

Since the birth of Royal Oak in 1972, the guillochage work had been exclusively subcontracted to a dial-work artisan. In order to produce this element in the workshop, the horology brand recovered 40 year old machines in Canada and the United States. The machines were then completely overhauled and improved over the period of a year before they took their place in the manufacturing process 3 years ago.

The new range of Royal Oak models which are currently being produced in the workshop will be coming out in 2012 to celebrate the collection’s 40th anniversary.

Taking a pocket watch out of one’s waistcoat pocket to give a passer-by the time: this gesture, outdated for some, is still practiced with pleasure by several watch enthusiasts. Alone in his workshop, a glass-walled room on the top floor of the Audemars Piguet Museum, Jean-Charles Bratschi creates pocket watches in their entirety using traditional craftsmanship. “Among the typical models, for example, I am making a minute repeater with a perpetual calendar, a chronograph and a split-seconds. They can be housed in yellow, pink, or grey gold, in titanium or in platinum, depending on the request.”

It’s an extremely long fabrication process, because it takes about nine months to complete a model. “I may have to adjust the 638 parts that make up a repeater watch several times to be sure that it’s working perfectly. Even to the point of refashioning some of the parts.” His creations are prized by collectors. Some even come to the workshop to meet the master watchmaker himself. Bratschi remembers a sixty-year old American who wore a vest with his Audemars Piguet Grand Complication, like an apparition from another era. “He told me that he was a member of a club of grand complication owners. They met regularly to proudly show off their treasures, as if they were collectible toy trains or valuable stamps,” smiled the specialist, who has been working for Audemars Piguet for 31 years.  Although he doesn’t think pocket watches will catch on again any time soon, he is determined to act as a guardian of this disappearing ancestral know-how and heritage.

From footballer David Beckham to actor Johnny Depp, more and more men are wearing bracelets, necklaces and rings. Whether they’re ethnic, flashy, or sporty, men’s jewelry pieces are all the rage.

To complete its prestigious jewelry collection with a more casual line, Audemars Piguet introduced its Royal Oak Offshore Jewelry Collection in 2008 – a line of jewelry for men and women that includes rings and bracelets. These objects reflect the characteristics of the signature Royal Oak Offshore collection. The material of preference is rubber, decorated with the “Mega Tapestry” motif typically found on Royal Oak Offshore chronographs. The ring is octagonal in shape with eight hexagonal screws, similar to the bezels on the chronographs. “Rubber is a multipurpose material, contrasting and bold. These pieces are as suitable for evening wear as they are for the beach,” says Octavio Garcia, artistic director of Audemars Piguet since 2003.

The rubber bracelet with clasp has a buckle that can be either set or satiny and is reminiscent of the oversized buckle on the watch. There are several versions of the ring. It can be plain, ornamented with polished steel screws, or set with eight diamonds.

This collection will continue to expand. “In 2010, we will add cufflinks. Their center will be  rubber with the “Mega Tapestry” motif, and they’ll have a colored bezel not unlike the watch,” according to the artistic director.

More information on the Audemars Piguet website: www.audemarspiguet.com

On the border of the Andes mountains and the Amazonian rainforest, Machu Picchu, a remote village lost from human memory for centuries, has re-emerged from the past without relinquishing any clues about the mysterious people who abandoned it so long ago. Travelers returning from their journey to the end of the world agree: the site is breathtaking.

Nestled at the foot of the 15th century citadel’s ruins, the Sanctuary Lodge has two suites and 29 rooms, twelve of which boast an uninterrupted view of the surrounding mountains. With its lush gardens, the luxurious, intimate eco-lodge is a peaceful oasis in which visitors can immerse themselves in the sacred and mysterious atmosphere of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Lodge, the only hotel on the site, is an exceptional setting for a unique timepiece created by Audemars Piguet in honor of the Incan city. Sold in favor of a charitable organization in Lima dedicated to handicapped children, the only copy of the “Jules Audemars Equation of Time Machu Picchu” was acquired by the international hotel chain Orient-Express expressly for permanent display in the lodge.

Presented in a unique box created by Peruvian sculptor Marcelo Wong, the yellow-gold timepiece containing the emblematic 2120 caliber combines equation of time, indication of sunset and sunrise, perpetual calendar, and phases of the moon (“astronomical moon”). All those functions have been calibrated especially for the coordinates of Machu Picchu. It’s a true jewel inspired by the spectacular beauty of the Peruvian Andes, and could not have found a more exclusive and fitting destination than the Sanctuary Lodge, a unique hotel lost in the clouds at the foot of the majestic city…

Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, Peru.
Reservations : +51 1 610 8300
Email : res-mapi@peruorientexpress.com.pe