A Definitive Encyclopedia of the Tooling Behind Luxury Watchmaking
Audemars Piguet releases more than 500 pages dedicated to the extreme discipline and detail of creating Royal Oaks, tourbillons, and more.
It would have been easy for Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet to release a conventional and updated retrospective of its 150 years in business: lay out every model, talk about how they’re made, share some executive insight, and call it a wrap. It’s a tried-and-true approach, and it works, but it isn’t particularly inspiring. Any watch brand worth its salt has a verifiable lineage and plenty of beautiful timepieces to ogle.
The Watch – Stories and Savoir Faire goes many steps beyond, taking a no-detail-spared approach to highlighting even the smallest milestones in what it takes to create an Audemars Piguet watch. The book does not have a sole author but rather is attributed to the brand with an introduction from Audemars Piguet leadership.
To say the book is exhaustive is an understatement. At more than 560 pages, The Watch takes readers on the entire journey from dial to complications, getting as granular as the small nuances in lug design that might dramatically change a watch’s construction. While this is all done under the framework of Audemars Piguet, as expected, much of this tooling is adaptable to other noted luxury brands, and the book also notes where some of those names have used similar technology or processes.
As a result, the book details Audemars Piguet’s painstaking approach to producing its timepieces. There is no shortage of Royal Oak variations along with much simpler pieces from the company’s earlier days. Readers will also get an appreciation for Piguet’s more experimental side, with special one-offs crafted in ceramic, exceptionally thin cases, or more extreme complications. These are watches that regularly cost five and six figures, and this book leaves no doubt as to why.
The occasional interviews with Audemars Piguet staff members and workers are particularly enjoyable, offering a glimpse into the daily inner workings of a luxury timepiece maker in ways the public doesn’t normally get to see. There are spotlights on gemologists, designers, microtechnology engineers, and more.
Accompanying the start of each chapter is a corresponding illustration that borders on the whimsical, bringing a bit of levity to a craft and hobby that’s often taken far too seriously but also without discounting the complexity of creating a luxury timepiece. There’s a certain amount of technological magic that goes into creating an Audemars Piguet, which these pictures do a nice job of cementing.
The Watch has plenty to offer both novice fans and committed hobbyists. It could be as much of a reference in which to bookmark pages over time as a showpiece to sit on the coffee table.
