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.

A progression through three legendary watch collections: the Royal Oak, the Royal Oak Offshore and the Millenary. It’s also the culmination of a project carried out over an entire year by students in the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL) under the supervision of the famous French designer Ronan Bourroullec in ECAL’s Master’s Program in Design and the Luxury Goods Industry. “Students were asked to give free rein to their imaginations, designing pieces that could be part of these collections, but still shake the DNA of the brand up a bit,” explains Augustin Scott de Martinville, head of the school’s master’s programs. “That being the case, they naturally came up with bold ideas that were nonetheless perfectly respectful of the codes that govern the world of Audemars Piguet.”

Created in 2008, this postgraduate degree is producing a new generation of designers who are able to meet the demands of the high-end segment of the market. They will be able to create new luxury products by putting into practice what they’ve learned about new technologies, traditional skills and the various materials used in the sector.

“This artistic collaboration with ECAL illustrates Audemars Piguet’s openness and commitment to creativity,” emphasizes the brand’s artistic director, Octavio Garcia, who led this cooperation with the prestigious Swiss design school.

It’s not the first time that ECAL has collaborated with the watchmaking Manufacture. Audemars Piguet is a privileged partner of the Master’s program in Design and the Luxury Goods Industry. Students designed and produced a jewelry accessory in 2009, and leather purses last year. “Working with a traditional company like this is a real opportunity, because it represents an unquestionably high level of savoir-faire. At a time when the notion of luxury is bandied about indiscriminately, becoming more of an abstract idea, it is important that our students discover the watchmaking culture,” says de Martinville, who is also a designer in the Lausanne-based BIG-GAME studio.

Note: the three prototypes will be exhibited until the end of June in Elac, ECAL’s exhibition hall. For more information: www.ecal.ch

Photo credit: Peter Mauss

The Audemars Piguet boutique in the Moda Mall has been open for nearly a year. This luxury mall is located inside Bahrain’s monumental World Trade Center. The two towers, in the form of 240-meter high sails, are the tallest in the kingdom and the only skyscrapers in the world equipped with windmills.

The Moda Mall is on the ground floor of this impressive edifice. There the boutique joins other prestigious brands, such as Stella McCartney, Armani, and Marc Jacobs. Two friends of the brand, racecar drivers Sébastien Buemi and Jarno Trulli, were on hand to celebrate the store’s opening. And for a good reason: Bahrain has a Formula 1 racetrack, and it was hosting the first race of the season. This synergy provided the perfect occasion for Audemars Piguet to launch its signature watch of the year: the Royal Oak Offshore Grand Prix. This sports watch was inspired by the esthetics of car racing, notably in the use of forged carbon and titanium.

The boutique’s design takes its cue from the brand’s distinctive features. In the entrance, a play of lights leads directly to the signature models displayed in streamlined cases. The “lounge” area is a blend of tradition and modernity. In the other rooms, the oval ceiling lights and beige and chocolate colors call to mind the contemporary Millenary collection. The Atelier Oi in the Swiss village of La Neuveville, which designs the AP boutiques, also included elements that evoke Le Brassus. Display cases and windows are decorated with landscapes from the Vallée de Joux, and stone from the Jura is used in the floors and interior walls.

The Bahrain boutique joins its partner in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, strengthening the brand’s presence in the Middle East, according to Philippe Merk, CEO of Audemars Piguet. “Even though our distribution network is particularly well established in this region, we must always work to improve our visibility,” he explains. The boutique attracts a local clientele, as well as visitors from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait. Some foreign visitors, particularly English and French, are taken by the Limited Editions, the Royal Oak Offshore Collections and the Royal Oak, which are currently the brand’s top sellers.

“At Audemars Piguet, we have always tried to personalize watches according to our clients’ wishes. So we are always attentive to their requests,” explains Régis Meylan, who has headed the Manufacture’s Spécialités (specialty) workshop since 1981. Skeleton watches in particular lend themselves to this kind of creative addition. With an engraved rotor made visible thanks to the sapphire caseback, the skeleton has become a showcase for every possible stylistic effect. Initials, Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, company logos, Cyrillic writing, astrological signs – anything is possible.

Between thirty and fifty of these creations are made each year. Two watchmakers sketch and propose the project to the client, and then trace and cut by hand these unique pieces in gold, grey or pink gold. All this is done on a very tight schedule. It takes from one to two months to deliver these personalized rotors to their owners, to be placed in classic models such as the Jules Audemars or timeless pieces such as the Royal Oaks.

The most extravagant request? “An Arab sheikh wanted to have his coat of arms engraved on fifteen pieces for a business dinner he was hosting in his palace. Each guest left the event with a personalized watch,” remembers Meylan. The pattern engraved in the material requires minute precision, particularly for Japanese or Chinese calligraphy. “One time, a piece was returned to us because we cut out a point when we skeletonized the rotor, and in doing so the meaning of the word had completely changed,” the enthusiast recalls.