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A trio of warships christened Royal Oak,
named after the legendary "royal oak" - a hollowed out tree which offered King
Charles II a safe hiding place from his pursuers - lent their distinctive name
in 1972 to an equally distinctive luxury sports watch - the Royal Oak by
Audemars Piguet. Since then, the Royal Oak has become the leading model of the
world-famous firm in Le Brassus and helped the stainless steel wristwatch attain
respectability among watch lovers around the world.
The Audemars Piguet
story begins in 1875 when twenty three year old watchmaker Jules Audemars and
future partner Edward-August Piguet, just twenty-one years of age, met in the
Vallee de Joux. Both had learned the watchmaker's trade after finishing public
school in their hometown of Le Brassus by training at the bench and returned to
the Vallee de Joux to find jobs in the local watchmaking industry. Jules
Audemars was soon producing raw components for watch movements, while
Edward-August Piguet sought employment as a "repasseur" (a master watchmaker who
performs the final regulation on a watch). Shortly after their meeting in 1875,
the two talented watchmakers decided to join forces and founded the firm that
would someday come to be known as Audemars, Piguet et Cie.
Almost from
the beginning, Audemars was in charge of production and the technical side,
while his partner Piguet focused on sales. Their partnership was not an
immediate success, however. In fact, the Audemars Piguet trademark was not even
registered until 1882 and the firm's "official founding" did not take place
until 1889. Already, however, Audemars Piguet et Cie had become the third
largest employer for watch manufacturing in the Canton of Vaud. More importantly
perhaps, both men had deliberately shifted their focus towards the production of
high-quality, complex, ultra-precise watches.
Shortly after the official
founding in 1889, a branch office was built in Geneva and the partners decided
to produce all of their components and assemble the finished watches in-house.
This allowed the firm to maintain strict quality control over their products and
as a result, only products of the highest quality left the workshop. In short
order, the greatest, most renowned retail jewelers were ordering watches from Le
Brassus. Today, one can find many Audemars Piguet pocket watches identifiable as
an Audemars Piguet only by their serial number, the result of prestigious
jewelers, such as Gubelin and Tiffany & Co., wanting only their own name
engraved on the movement and case, and not that of Audemars Piguet.
It
is interesting to note that between 1894 and 1899, a mere 1,208 watches were
produced. Among these were some of the most sophisticated timepieces ever made,
including the legendary "Grande Complication" series, which is still being
produced today. Aside from normal time indication, a Grande Complication
timepiece offers minute repetition, perpetual calendar, and chronograph.
At around this same time, the retail operations in Geneva and London
were transformed into full-service branches where watches were not only serviced
but also assembled. By 1914, Audemars Piguet launched a project to develop a
watch so complicated that it would take six years of continuous production
before the watch could be delivered to the importers Guignard & Golay in
London.
The watch in question was a pocket watch with two dials and a
one-minute tourbillon mechanism. As well as a tourbillon, this double dial
Lepine, gold watch included a minute repeater, a chronograph with 60-minute and
12-hour counters, perpetual calendar with displays which "jump" at midnight,
display of the leap year cycle, the "age" and phases of the moon, and power
reserve display. The second face showed an additional 24 hours based on the
sidereal hour, moving a pair of independent hands. A special system connected to
this gear-train makes it possible to see the changes in the London sky at any
time of the day or night, through an oval-shaped opening in the rear dial. The
sky is represented by 315 stars engraved on a plate of gold, enameled in blue.
The stars, with their respective names, are all clearly visible.
Unfortunately, it was the last triumph for the founding partners.
Audemars died in 1918. The following year, so did Edward Piguet.
After
the founders' death, Audemars Piguet continued to prosper, establishing several
technical milestones with the creation of the world's smallest minute repeater
watch, having a diameter of just 15.8 millimeters; the debut of a Hunter Model
(hinged-lid pocket watch) with a jumping second hand, also featuring a
barometer, quarter repeater, independent second hand, the date and day of the
week; and in 1925, another first: the world's thinnest pocket watch measuring
just 1.32 millimeters. The year 1928 also saw the development of the world's
first skeletonized pocketwatch.
Needless to say, then as now, Audemars
Piguet was considered one of the finest watch manufacturers in the world.
Business boomed, as did the world economy. Customers of Audemars Piguet included
such prestigious jewelers as Gubelin, Tiffany & Co., Cartier and Bulgari.
Unfortunately, the company's success ground to a shocking halt in 1929 when only
737 watches were sold. By contrast, nearly 2,000 watches had been sold in 1920.
With the stock market crash in 1929 and the subsequent Depression, there were
suddenly very few customers for expensive watches. Like other Swiss watch
companies, Audemars Piguet was forced to layoff most of its workforce, until
hitting rock bottom in 1932, when just two watches were produced.
Despite the hard times, the company bounced back following World War II,
thanks to the success of its chronographs and ultra-thin (the famous nine-ligne
calibre 2003) dress watches.
The 1950's and 1960's saw a major rebound
in the firm's sales. In 1967, in cooperation with Jaeger LeCoultre, a new record
for the thinnest (2.45 mm) automatic movement, with a centrally placed rotor of
21-carat gold, was established. Just three years later, in 1970, the watchmakers
of Audemars Piguet premiered the world's thinnest movement (3.05 mm) to include
date display and a central rotor made of gold. The year 1972, of course, marked
the debut of what has become the signature model for Audemars Piguet, the "Royal
Oak".
Designed by the legendary watchmaker Gerald Genta, its octagonal
shape, steel edges and the use of prominent hexagonal screws as a design feature
strike a perfect balance between power and elegance. Worthy of its name, the
Royal Oak has since become a legend. Its octagonal design, originally produced
only in high-grade steel, took the breath away even of many professionals.
However, when the Royal Oak was unveiled at the 1972 European watchmaking fair
in Basel with a price tag of just 3,300 SFr. -- unheard of for a watch bearing
the Audemars Piguet name -- its success was beyond even its creators'
expectations!
In 1993, the company museum, housed in the original
workshop of Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet, was established. This museum, a
tribute to the company's visionary founders, allows watch enthusiasts to
discover Audemars Piguet technology "from A to Z." Its exhibits retrace the key
stages in the company's history, and show many of the creations that made
Audemars Piguet famous, including the Grande Complication. As well as its unique
collection of antique watches, and in particular of watch complications, this
very unusual museum enables visitors to see the intricacy and precision required
in horology, by observing two master watchmakers at work in the modern Audemars
Piguet atelier which is a permanent feature of the museum.
That same
year, a new model in the Royal Oak collection premiered: the Royal Oak Offshore,
which is water resistant to a depth of 10 atmospheres. The Offshore model offers
following functions: chronograph to 1/5 second, tachymeter, 30-minute counter,
12-hour counter, date display, seconds display, automatic movement with central
rotor in 21-carat gold.
Three years later, in 1996, a wristwatch version
of the famous "Grand Complication" premiered at Basel. More than 600 components
are contained in an integrated movement that does not exceed 8.5 mm in height.
It is a technical marvel that marries old-fashioned craftsmanship with
cutting-edge technology, such as computer-aided design (CAD). It was also in
1996 that Audemars Piguet embarked on a new era, becoming one of the first major
watch companies to represent itself on the Internet with its official Web site.
Today, Audemars Piguet remains one of the most prestigious watchmakers
in the world -- yet despite the company's enormous success (AP even owns 40% of
Jaeger-LeCoultre), every watch is still made by hand the old-fashioned way - one
at a time. Today, along with Patek Philippe (PP) and Vacheron Constantin (VC),
AP is considered to be one of the "big-three" as one of the finest watches in
the world
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