Audemars Piguet History in 4 Minutes

History of Audemars Piguet

Join me as I dive into the fascinating history of one of the most innovative and influential watch brands of all time, Audemars Piguet.
The prestigious Swiss watchmaker was founded in 1875 in Le Brassus, Switzerland, by young watchmakers Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet.

In its early years, the brand produced sophisticated movements for other Geneva-based watch companies but would eventually move on to making complete wristwatches of its own a short while later, many of which had at least one, if not several, complications.

By the end of the 1800s, their portfolio boasted countless sophisticated masterpieces, such as the brand’s first minute repeater wristwatch and the first Grand Complication pocket watch, which featured seven different complications, including an alarm, perpetual calendar, and even a chronograph with jumping seconds.

This era, of course, would only be the beginning of over a century of innovation. The world’s first jumping hour, a complication where the hour hand literally jumps from one hour to the next instead of slowly sweeping around the dial, was developed by Audemars Piguet in 1921. The brand also created the first skeleton pocket watch in 1934, followed by the thinnest wristwatch in 1946, which featured a movement measuring just 1.64mm thick.

The perpetual calendar, a staple of the modern AP catalog, first appeared in wristwatch form in 1957. This high-technology complication uses a mechanical memory to automatically adjust the day, date, and even the month while accounting for the leap year. You might recognize this feature on current-production Audemars Piguet watches via the multi-register dial, which displays each calendar function in a different sub-dial.

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That brings us to 1972 and the Royal Oak, one of the most important watches in the entire Audemars Piguet canon and the first stainless steel luxury sports watch.The Gerald Genta masterpiece was modeled after a deep-sea diving helmet, featuring a similar octagonal silhouette with visible screw heads and a sleek, integrated bracelet. Although somewhat unorthodox, these features have since defined an entire genre of watchmaking.

The massively successful collection spawned several noteworthy sub-models, including the Royal Oak Offshore in 1993, a sportier interpretation of the original 1970s model with greater water resistance and often a rubber strap.

There was also the Royal Oak Concept, named for its experimental approach to the future of haute horlogerie. It joined the line-up in 2002 and is distinguished by an overall sharper, more robust design and more intricate dials.

Then, in 2019, Audemars Piguet added a new collection of watches to its impressive portfolio, the Code 11.59. The name is an acronym for the mantra “Challenge, Own, Dare, Evolve,” while the “11.59” timestamp represents the very last minute of the day. Surprisingly, it has a traditional round case, although keep-eyed collectors will notice that the mid-case is octagonal like the famous Royal Oak.

Last but certainly not least, is the [RE]Master, one of the brand’s newest collections and a fitting way to round out our brief history of the Audemars Piguet brand. It comes full circle by paying homage to models from the brand’s past. The first watch, released in 2020, was the [Re]Master 01, modeled after a rare Audemars Piguet Chronograph from the 1940s, followed in 2024 by the [Re]Master 02, a “Tribute to Brutalism,” inspired by the asymmetrical ref. 5159BA released in 1960.

This brief overview merely scratches the surface of Audemars Piguet’s revolutionary portfolio but will hopefully give you a general idea of the brand’s fascinating and unique design language and how it has evolved through the years.

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