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Audemars Piguet

'You, my Royal Oak, are the masterpiece of my career and the magical realisation of a childhood dream'Gérald Genta, designer

Audemars Piguet revolutionised the luxury watch market in the seventies with the Royal Oak, a flagship steel piece designed by Gérald Genta that pushed watch design to a new level. Forward thinking design and technology paired with second-to-none engineering have elevated Audemars Piguet to the frontline of modern watchmaking.

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Audemars Piguet History

Today, Audemars Piguet is considered one of the top three horological brands in the world for quality, complexity and desirability. This kind of global respect is not earned overnight; it is the result of over one hundred years of hard work and dedication. In order to be a leader and not a follower, Audemars Piguet had to differentiate itself from its competitors, which means taking risks; risks that almost cost the company its own existence.

Le Brassus, 1875, in the heart of the Vallée de Joux. Two friends, Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet set up a workshop from which to make movements. Audemars produced components whilst Piguet ensured that the completed movements were correctly regulated. The two friends made their name by being the best at what they did, and over time, they began to grow, soon becoming one of the largest watchmaking employers in Switzerland. Quality control was where they excelled, and this allowed them to produce some stunningly complicated movements.

After the pair died in 1918 and 1919, the company continued to be one of the finest in watchmaking. The smallest minute repeater, the thinnest watch, the first skeleton watch; all these achievements guaranteed their success. However, when the stock market crashed in the 1930's many watchmakers were heavily affected, and Audemars Piguet was one of them. The market for luxury goods was almost non-existent.

This make-or-break scenario gave Audemars Piguet a chance to try something daring. Recruiting the up and coming designer Gérald Genta turned out to be a move that would define the company for many decades to come, but one that wasn't initially accepted by the watch-buying public. Taking inspiration from the 1862 battleship the HMS Royal Oak, Genta used the octagonal portholes as the basis of his design and an integrated bracelet that blended into the case. Compared to the contemporary watches of the time, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was a futuristic, dynamic, angular shock to the system.

The biggest shock was not the watch itself, but the price. At its release in 1972, it cost more than any other Audemars Piguet, and so initial take-up was slow. This extreme pricing did, however, introduce a new level of super-rich luxury, becoming a product that only the most affluent could afford. Once the Royal Oak took, it took well, and in doing so it pulled the company out of the mire and back into financial success.

The Royal Oak evolved into the Royal Oak Offshore in 1993, a modern evolution of the watch that changed history for Audemars Piguet. The large, bold and often colourful Offshore's have recreated the niche for super-luxury watches by raising the price bar once again, and opening the gates for other new brands to follow in its footsteps. The Offshore can be summed up by its limited editions and by its collaborations, but mainly for the quality and watchmaking excellence that runs through the DNA of Audemars Piguet since it began.

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The Watch Magazine

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