THE WORLD OF F INE WATCHES

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THE MILESTONEWATCHES OF AUDEMARS PIGUETPRESENTED BYWATCHTIME MAGAZINE

AUDEMARSPIGUET

AUDEMARSPIGUET

THE MILESTONEWATCHES OF

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AUDEMARS PIGUET

MILESTONESAudemars Piguet

Audemars Piguet is among the pioneers of the minute-re-peater wristwatch. The company completed its first suchtimepiece, for Louis Brandt & Frère, in Bienne in 1892. Thefirst model to bear the Audemars Piguet signature on the dialfollowed in 1906. The relatively small size of the movementand its case appealed to connoisseurs of that era, who be-lieved that genuine virtuosity expressed itself in uncommonlysmall dimensions. Audemars Piguet delivered the wristwatch,with its pillow-shaped gold case and its movement measuringonly 22.56 mm in diameter, to Gübelin Jewelers in Lucerne in1906. One year later, Audemars Piguet cased hand-woundcaliber SMV, bearing the number 11649 and measuring27.07 mm in diameter, inside a white- and yellow-gold caseand shipped that watch to Metric Watch in New York. TheAmerican importer had specially ordered it for John Shaeffer,a successful industrialist who wanted his name prominentlydisplayed on the dial. When the 12 indices are read clockwise,they spell out his name.

Extra-slim calibers are prized by horological connoisseurs. The reason:tolerances shrink as constructive height is reduced, so very conscientiouscraftsmanship is required from the movement’s designers and assemblers.Audemars Piguet has specialized in such slim movements for generations.It introduced the world’s thinnest pocketwatch, which contained a move-ment based on a LeCoultre ébauche, in 1925. The hand-wound move-ment is a mere 1.32 mm thick: it was completed and finely adjusted atAudemars Piguet. Together with LeCoultre, Audemars Piguet developedanother milestone in the years prior to 1946: ultra-thin hand-wound Cal-iber 2003 is a mere 1.64 mm thick and 20.3 millimeters in diameter. Un-like other constructions, which sometimes malfunctioned under roughwearing conditions, Caliber 2003 proved to be very reliable, which part-ly explains why this caliber is still produced today, and still used in ele-gantly slim timepieces like the two-handed wristwatch shown here.

The manner in which watches display thetime has changed over the years withfashions and tastes. In the early 20th cen-tury, digital time displays became a popu-lar alternative to the classical analog stylewith hands. Audemars Piguet introducedits first wristwatches with digital “jump-ing hours” in 1921; the display’s unusualappearance was a major selling point inthose days. But the little disk, printedwith numerals for the hours, also had itsshortcomings: reading the hour wasn’t al-ways easy, especially in poor lighting. The

version pictured here, which had win-dows cut into the metallic front of itscase, was delivered to the American re-tailer Metric Watch in 1926. Unlike thefragile glass or Plexiglas crystals thatwere commonly found on wristwatchesof that era, the little windows on the frontof this one are practically immune toshocks and hard knocks. The rectangular,white-gold case contains hand-woundCaliber GHSM, which is 22.5 millimetersin diameter and a mere 2.8 millimetersthick.

Calendar mechanisms rank among theoldest complications that can be added tomechanical movements. For technicalreasons, they are usually installed directlybelow the dial. Full calendars indicate thedate, the day of the week, and the month,but require manual correction at the endof all months with fewer than 31 daysand on New Year’s Eve. This arrange-ment of functions is found in the hand-wound caliber that was completed in1921 and bears the number 31996. Au-demars Piguet bought the 10-ligne basecaliber (GHSM 17/12) from the move-

ment manufacturer LeCoultre. Threehands indicate the day, date and month.There’s also a moon-phase display at 6o’clock; its disk has exactly 59 teeth, andtwo small moons are positioned oppositeeach other on the front of the display. Thewatch thus approximates each lunar cy-cle to 29.5 days. Audemars Piguet also in-cluded two inset buttons in the flanks ofthe rectangular, white-gold case to makemanual corrections easy. As was usual onAudemars Piguet watches from this era,the dial bears the signature of the retailer— in this case, “E. Gübelin Lucerne.”

1892/1907MINUTE REPEATER

1926CALIBER 2003

1921HEURE SAUTANTE

1921FULL CALENDAR

MILESTONESAudemars Piguet

Perpetual calendars “know” the variouslengths of the months in ordinary yearswith 365 days and also in leap years with366 days. Audemars Piguet debuted itsfirst pocketwatches with this complicationin 1883, but did not equip a wristwatchwith it until the mid-20th century, and thenonly in very small numbers. To the best ofcontemporary knowledge, AP only madenine of these perpetual calendar timepieces(all with manual winding) between 1957and 1969. The base movement is the 13-ligne Caliber VZSS, which shows the sec-

onds on a subdial at 6 o’clock. With aDubois Dépraz calendar module mountedon its front side, the 29.5-mm movement isdesignated as Caliber VZSSQP. The screwbalance, which oscillates at a pace of 2.5Hz, has a generous diameter of 12 mm.Audemars Piguet offered these gold watch-es with two different calendar assemblies.Both feature an ordinary month-hand at 3o’clock as well as a leap-year indicator anda moon-phase display, but one versionshows the moon at 12 o’clock while theother puts it at 6 o’clock.

1957PERPETUAL CALENDAR

Audemars Piguet took its first steps into the world of self-windingwatches with automatic Caliber 2499 in 1956. This movement wassupplied exclusively to Audemars Piguet by the LeCoultre ébauchemanufacturer. It measured 13 lignes in diameter and was relativelythick, at 5.4 millimeters. Caliber family 207x, which AP first used in1958, was also not particularly slim, measuring 5.1 mm. It wasn’tuntil 1967 that Audemars Piguet could manifest its philosophy of ul-tra-slim construction in automatic movements. Caliber 2120, whichdebuted in 1967, refutes the opinion that a functional thickness ofless than 3 mm can only be achieved by including a microrotor.Equipped with a central rotor, this caliber is just 2.45 millimetersthick – an unprecedented feat in mechanical watchmaking. Again,LeCoultre assisted with the development of this 12½-ligne move-ment. The rotor has a 21k-gold segment and runs atop four periph-erally arranged ruby rollers. It originally used a Gyromax balancewith a freely breathing flat hairspring paced at 19,800 vph, but thisinitial version was succeeded by Caliber 2120/1, with a Glucydur an-nular balance and a regulator mechanism. (Caliber 2120/1 shouldnot be confused with version 2121, which includes a date display.)

1967AUTOMATIC CALIBER 2120

In 1970, representatives from the French, Swiss and Italianmarkets turned to Audemars Piguet in their common questfor a new wristwatch that would be simultaneously elegant,sporty and exclusive. When the object of their desire debutedin 1972, it came as something of a surprise to visitors at thatyear’s watch fair in Basel. The brand’s former chief GeorgesGolay had commissioned designer Gérald Genta to createthe new watch, which boasted an appealing porthole-like ap-pearance, a screwed octagonal bezel and a linked bracelet.Audemars Piguet manufactured the entire piece from stain-less steel. Despite its high price (for the time), the first seriesof 1,000 watches quickly sold out. Connoisseurs called formore – and Audemars Piguet responded by eventually devel-oping an entire collection. The watch’s name was influencedby its maritime design: England’s King Charles II, fleeingfrom his enemies after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in1651, concealed himself inside the hollow trunk of a greatoak tree, which would later be known as the “Royal Oak.”Several battleships of the British Royal Navy would later bechristened with this name. The apertures for cannons in thehull of one such ship, the “HMS Royal Oak” (which wasbuilt in 1862), were similar to the bezel of the iconic wrist-watch that debuted 110 years later.

1972ROYAL OAK

Patent protection was granted in 1801 toa rotating regulating organ that compen-sated for the detrimental effects of Earth’sgravitational pull on the rate of pocket-watches. Tourbillons were first integratedinto a very small number of wristwatchesstarting in 1945. Audemars Piguet pro-duced its first such watch, in a very smallseries, in 1986. The company investedmore than a million Swiss francs in theproject, which was the world’s first,smallest and slimmest self-winding wrist-watch with a one-minute tourbillon. Theoverall height of just 4.8 mm was madepossible by a clever trick, first conceivedby the Swatch brand: the back of the casealso serves as the baseplate for the move-ment. A platinum-iridium rotor providesthe kinetic energy to automatically windthe mainspring. A ratchet system conveyskinetic energy to the barrel. The energystored inside the barrel keeps the watchrunning for 50 hours. Audemars Piguetfabricated the miniaturized, rotating car-riage from titanium. The crown is posi-tioned on the back of the movement,which measures 32.5 by 28.5 millimeters.

1986TOURBILLON

MILESTONESAudemars Piguet

Audemars Piguet presented its first pocketwatch with a grandcomplication in 1889. A significantly smaller version for thewrist debuted 107 years later at the Basel watch fair. The 42-millimeter platinum wristwatch, with split-seconds chrono-graph, perpetual calendar and minute repeater, is even morecomplex than the pocketwatches that preceded it: first, be-cause its movement is equipped with an automatic windingsystem and an indicator for the calendar weeks; second, be-cause considerably more than 600 components are installedinto the smallest possible amount of space. The resulting cal-iber is small enough to power a timepiece that can be worn onthe wrist. With a diameter of 31 millimeters and a height of8.55 millimeters, Caliber 2885 has a volume of just 6.45 cu-bic centimeters. An engraved, golden rotor winds the main-spring in one direction; when fully wound, the barrel storesenough energy to keep the watch running for approximately50 hours. Audemars Piguet chose a very traditional solutionfor the design of the oscillating and escapement system: theengineers opted for a screw balance with a frequency of 3 Hz.A push-button integrated into the winding crown controlsthe split-seconds chronograph hand.

1996GRANDE

COMPLICATION

In anticipation of the Royal Oak’s 30thanniversary, Audemars Piguet began thecreative process that would produce thefirst ultra-sporty Royal Oak Conceptwatch. While developing the case andmovement, the manufacture’s engineerschose to work with innovative materialsfrom the worlds of aerospace, medicaland electrical engineering. The case has atotally revised look and is fabricatedfrom alacrite 602, a notoriously difficult-to-process alloy that was originally devel-oped for aeronautical applications andtool technology. Titanium was the mate-rial of choice for the octagonal bezel andthe movement. The resulting watch is wa-ter-resistant to an impressive 500 metersand largely unaffected by stresses fromsudden acceleration and extreme shocks.This is all the more surprising because themovement also includes a tourbillon. Inaddition to showing the time, this watchuses a patented “dynamograph” to dis-play the power reserve and the torque. Fi-nally, the Concept also offers a uniquewinding and hand-setting system: a but-ton is pressed to pre-select each of thecrown’s three functions (winding, handsetting, and neutral), so the crown neverneeds to be extracted. In the button’s neu-tral position, the crown is completely un-coupled from the gear train.

2002ROYAL OAK CONCEPT

This wristwatch belongs to the Tradition d’Excellence seriesand was produced in a limited series of just 20 pieces. The lefthalf of the transverse-oval Millenary case is reserved for aspecial escapement that traces its ancestry to the year 1791and to Robert Robin, watchmaker to the French royal court.The construction saps significantly less energy than a Swisslever escapement. Reducing the energy requirement enablesmovements to run noticeably longer with the same main-spring. Furthermore, its clever geometry makes lubricants un-necessary, even without the use of modern materials. As theperfect partner for this unconventional escapement, Aude-mars Piguet chose a large balance with a variable moment ofinertia and a frequency of 21,600 vph. Two hairsprings posi-tioned one atop the other, and with diametrically oppositefixation points, “breathe” beneath the elongated balancebridge of hand-wound Caliber 2899. Each of the hairspringsoscillates in the opposite direction of its counterpart, thusachieving higher equilibrium and also offering better oppor-tunities for fine adjustment. Rather than advancing in therhythm of the balance’s oscillations, the seconds hand on thesubdial leaps forward in one-second increments. The CabinetNo. 5, which has a power-reserve display and perpetual cal-endar, can store seven days’ worth of power.

2006CABINET NO.5

This ingenious timepiece was created to demonstrate the tech-nical potential of watchmaking in the 21st century. Tradition-al horological craftsmanship is united with high-tech elementsin AP’s oval-shaped, hand-wound Caliber 2884, which con-sists of 336 individual components and is fitted inside the caseof the Millenary MC 12. Two barrels amass 10 days of powerreserve. Plates made of carbon fiber and bridges made of blueanodized aluminum provide a light but sturdy framework.The spectrum of functions includes a linear power-reserve dis-play at the left edge of the dial and a chronograph with handsthat start running without an undesired stutter. The one-minute tourbillon weighs a mere 0.45 grams.

2006MILLENARY MC 12

MILESTONESAudemars Piguet

After the launch of the ultra-sporty RoyalOak Offshore in 1993, Audemars Piguetintroduced a further evolution of thatwatch in 2007. This edition sold outquickly, so a connoisseur could counthimself lucky if he was able to get hishands on one of these regatta chrono-graphs, each of which weighs a mere 100grams. The watch’s primary draw was itsunique case, which was the first in watchhistory made of wrought carbon, an ultra-light and extremely tough material. Be-cause it was without precedent, Aude-mars Piguet had to develop a new manu-facturing method to ensure that the sharpedges and surfaces were perfect right fromthe start because post-processing wasn’tpossible. The quality and appearance re-

sult from the arrangement of pressedpieces of carbon fiber. The process beginswith molds that are filled with carbonthreads measuring between one and twomm in thickness. Each of these largerthreads consists of several thousandfibers, which are held together by minus-cule threads made from a special polymer.The mold is filled with this mass, which isthen heated to around 240° Celsius andcompressed under more than 300 kilo-grams of pressure. The material generatedby this process consists of 76 percent car-bon fiber; the remainder is polyamide.Distinctive graining makes each carboncase unique. Audemars Piguet went on touse wrought carbon for the cases of sever-al other subsequent watch models.

2007ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE

ALINGHI TEAM

The Millenary case offers a surprising number of options fortechnicians to create watch movements that differ from con-ventional ones. At first glance, model 4101 looks like it has atourbillon. But it is actually only the oscillating and escape-ment system, which have been repositioned forward andplaced prominently alongside the dial. The oscillating fre-quency is 4 Hz. A balance with variable moment of inertiaeliminates the need for a regulator mechanism. The automat-ic movement is 7.46 millimeters thick and consists of 253components. The unconventional construction is based onmanufacture Caliber 3120, which has a ball-borne rotor thatwinds the mainspring in both directions. After its mainspringhas been fully wound, Caliber 4101 will keep ticking for ap-proximately 60 hours.

2011MILLENARY 4101