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Since 1875, Audemars Piguet has produced complex and refined watches, equally beautiful inside and out, finished and assembled by hand. Decoration techniques add the final touch, turning timepieces into true works of art.
Audemars Piguet decorated by hand the hundreds of miniature components of its movements to the slightest details. While bevelling and polishing also serve a functional purpose, decorations are governed by an aesthetic approach, taking the shape of various motifs such as “Côtes de Genève,” “traits tirés,” circular graining, snailing and sunburst brushing. Today, the decoration of a movement amounts to at least 30% of its value.
Once decorated, components are meticulously assembled by hand. Before the hundreds of components are fitted to the mainplate, the watchmakers must carry out a crucial pre-assembly procedure known as jewelling, which is vital in reducing friction and ensuring that the calibre runs smoothly.
Polishing
Polishing results in smooth, shiny surfaces reducing the risk of oxidation.
Circular Graining
This decorative motif composed of close overlapping circles adorns bridges, plates, the bottoms of recesses and dials. The small circles also enable to catch micro-dust, thus stopping it from going into the mechanism.
Côtes de Genève
This type of decoration is generally reserved for the visible surface of bridges.
Hand-Chamfering
The hand-chamfering of flanks and angles ennobles calibres. A chamferer smoothes by hand the sharp and irregular edges of the movement’s components after machining. This procedure brings a play of light on the edges of the various parts, from screws and pins to larger components such as bridges and cams. The chamferer also gives the perfect V shape to external and interior angles for a refined finishing only achievable by hand.
A timepiece’s case reflects the strength that lies within. Its detailed hand-finished design acts as a protective shield for the movement, safeguarding it from shocks and moisture, all the while affording the timepiece style and personality.
Since the Manufacture’s origins, Audemars Piguet cases and bracelets have presented high-end finishing techniques usually found on calibres. Today, the contrast between polished and satin-brushed surfaces has become Audemars Piguet’s distinctive signature.
Audemars Piguet unveiled the Royal Oak Frosted Gold in 2016 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the ladies’ Royal Oak designed by Jacqueline Dimier in 1976. A collaboration with jewellery designer Carolina Bucci, this contemporary timepiece is rooted in an ancient gold hammering technique.
This method, also called Florentine technique, consists in beating gold with a diamond-tipped tool to create tiny indentations on the surface, for a sparkle effect similar to that of precious stones, like diamond dust. While Carolina Bucci has reinterpreted this technique in jewellery design today, Audemars Piguet’s craftspeople developed it into a horological craft suited to the unique case and bracelet construction of the Royal Oak.
Audemars Piguet watches are adorned with highly creative and expressive dials. Complex craftsmanship is topped off with high-end decorations and creative hour-markers, numerals and hands.
The guilloché patterns adorning the Royal Oak collection require a rare savoir-faire no longer taught in horology school, but passed down across generations at Audemars Piguet.
Petite Tapisserie
Guilloché decorative pattern on extra-thin Royal Oak models.
Grande Tapisserie
Guilloché decorative pattern on selfwinding and quartz Royal Oak models.
Méga Tapisserie
Stamp decorative pattern on the Royal Oak Offshore collection.
Openworking is an ancestral watchmaking art that has been an Audemars Piguet speciality since the 1930s.
Openworking consists in making openings in certain parts of the movement, such as plates and bridges, to reveal the beauty of the mechanism, especially its balance wheel, the beating heart of the watch. Working with a tiny hand saw, our openwork specialists start with the end design and works backward, removing as much material as possible—up to 60 or 70% of the movement—without jeopardising the reliability and precision of the watch’s mechanism.
The artisan then individually finishes the cut-out parts, rounding off and polishing the angles of the bridges, satin-brushing its flanks and stippling its recesses. The openworking of a Grande Complication takes approximately 150 hours of high precision work.
A vast array of gem-setting techniques ensures that precious stones light up each timepiece in its own unique way. These techniques include snow setting, closed setting, claw setting and grain setting, to name but a few, the oldest of which is the closed setting, which involves enclosing the stone in a gold thread.
Since its inception, Audemars Piguet has collaborated with prestigious jewellery brands, including Tiffany, Cartier, Oscar Heyman and Bvlgari to case its movements in unique Haute Joaillerie creations shimmering with diamonds and coloured gemstones. One notable example is the “Tutti Frutti” watch sold in 1929, equipped by Calibre 5/7SB, the smallest movement ever produced by the Manufacture. The external design of this unique piece comprising diamonds, emeralds, rubies as well as blue and yellow sapphires was crafted by the Parisian jeweller Egouvillon Lafon & Cie Paris (Audemars Piguet Heritage Collection, Inv. 1378).
The 1960s and 1970s witnessed the development of highly creative watches enriched with natural stone dials.
Dials made of tiger’s eye, lapis lazuli, aventurine, grossular garnet, opal, onyx, ruby, amethyst and japser, to name but a few, could be found in the Audemars Piguet catalogues, sometimes in combination with other gemstones featured on the case and bracelet.
In the 1980s, the growing trend for watches with welded bracelets spurred Audemars Piguet to open its own jewellery workshop and progressively create distinctive gemset watches in house, culminating with its Haute Joaillerie collection debuted in 2013.
Far from being confined to these one-off fine jewellery creations, impressive gemsetting continues to infuse Audemars Piguet’s collections today. While some timepieces present a bezel set with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts or rainbow-coloured gems, others are fully paved with diamonds or coloured stones to offer unique iridescent effects and contrasts.
NUMBER OF DIAMONDS
4,635 brilliant-cut diamonds on the case and bracelet, plus another 206 on the dial alone, compose the Diamond Fury.
NUMBER OF HOURS
It took passion, perfection and over 1,500 hours to finish the Diamond Fury.
ASTRONOMY
Inspired by the Vallée de Joux’s clear night sky, generations of watchmakers at Audemars Piguet have crafted refined timepieces capturing astronomical cycles.
Read moreCHIMING
Over the centuries, watchmakers have followed their dream to create refined chiming watches with the sound quality of musical instruments.
Read moreTOURBILLON AND SPECIAL ESCAPEMENTS
At Audemars Piguet, generations of watchmakers have preserved age-old techniques, while anticipating society’s ever-changing needs.
Read moreOUR CHRONOGRAPHS
Chronographs were developed in the 19th century with the increasing necessity to measure short periods of time and performances, such as horse races.
Read moreGRANDES COMPLICATIONS
To be considered a Grande Complication, a watch must include a minute repeater, a split-seconds chronograph and a perpetual calendar.
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