We still remember like it was yesterday, our first visit in 2013 to what is now ‘the old Audemars Piguet Museum’. The original museum was nestled in the historical building where Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet established the manufacture in 1875 in Le Brassus, Switzerland. The ‘old AP museum’ was very small, intimate, and a space full of charm that transported you back in time. However, it lacked the necessary space to properly showcase a large number of historical pieces in the museum’s collection, and it wasn’t very functional due to its multilevel layout.
In 2014, Audemars Piguet decided to expand the museum and the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet was born. Opening to the public on June 26th, 2020, this is a watch museum like no other.
Connected to the new museum, the historical house now welcomes visitors into a world of ancient woodwork and stone. It is at the top of this historical building, where natural light abounds, that Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet set their workshop in 1875. This restored building now houses the register room, the archives, the Heritage Department, the Audemars Piguet Foundation, as well as the Restoration Atelier.
Original Building where Audemars Piguet was Founded in 1875 —Old AP Museum
For this ambitious project, AP chose the architectural firm BIG —Bjarke Ingels Group— and the Swiss architecture office CCHE to handle it. Bjarke Ingels is the Danish architect, founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group. Born in Copenhagen in 1974, he began studying architecture in 1993 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, continued his studies at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona and returned to Copenhagen to receive his diploma in 1999. As a third-year student in Barcelona, he set up his first practice and won his first competition. Alongside his architectural practice, Ingels has been a visiting professor at the Rice University School of Architecture, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and most recently, the Yale School of Architecture.
Bjarke Ingels Founder of Bjarke Ingels Group alongside Sébastian Vivas Audemars Piguet’s Heritage and Museum Director and Historian Michael Friedman
Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet
The new museum named Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet immerses visitors into AP’s past, present, and future cultural universe. A space of live craft and encounters entwining contemporary architecture, pioneering scenography, and traditional savoir-faire, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet embodies the Manufacture’s free spirit and devotion to the perpetuation of Haute Horlogerie in the Vallée de Joux and beyond.
For the new museum, BIG designed a contemporary spiral-shaped glass pavilion to complement the company’s oldest building where the original museum was situated. This architectural combination symbolizes the blend of tradition and forward-thinking at the heart of Audemars Piguet’s craftsmanship while honoring its deep-rooted origins in the Vallée de Joux. BIG’s high-concept spiral, seamlessly rising from the ground, offers a pristine setting for the masterpieces of technicality and design which have taken shape, year after year, in this remote valley of the Swiss Jura Mountains.
The Musée Atelier pavilion has as the total surface of 2,500 square meters —26,900 sq ft— with an exhibition surface of 900 square meters —9,687 sq ft. This outstanding example of modern architecture features 108 structural glass panels with a thickness of 12 centimeters —4.7 inches— that support a weight of 470 tons. Each glass panel took three weeks to make and while the official opening date of the museum is on June 26th, 2020, an opening ceremony will take place the day before. Hopefully we will be allowed to travel by then and be there for the occasion.
The spiral designed by BIG seamlessly integrates the surrounding landscape, which has inspired watchmakers across generations. The Musée Atelier’s spiral-shaped pavilion, designed by BIG and realized by the Swiss architecture office CCHE, seamlessly rises on walls of structural curved glass. A feat of engineering and design, it is the first construction of its kind to be built at such altitude. The curved glazing entirely supports the steel roof, while a brass mesh runs along the external surface to regulate light and temperature. The green roof further helps regulate temperature, while absorbing water. The floors follow different slants to adapt to the natural gradient of the land and provide the basis of the museum’s inner layout stretched into a linear continuous spatial experience. Inside, the curved glass walls converge clockwise towards the spiral’s center, before moving in the opposite direction: visitors travel through the building as they would through the spring of a timepiece.
This new contemporary building reflects the Manufacture’s commitment to architectural innovation regarding manufacturing and cultural projects alike. It fulfills the requirements of the Swiss Minergie certification in terms of energy efficiency and high-quality construction. Additionally, Audemars Piguet is also building the new Hôtel des Horlogers in its hometown of Le Brassus, which will open in the summer of 2021—a sustainable, contemporary space at the crossroads of modernity and tradition, once again designed by BIG with CCHE as the local partner.
“Watchmaking like architecture is the art and science of imbuing metals and minerals with energy, movement, intelligence and measure to bring them to life in the form of telling time.” Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director of BIG —Bjarke Ingels Group.
Traditional workshops, where some of the Manufacture’s most complicated timepieces are still perfected today, have been included in the museum’s spatial experience to bring visitors in close contact with Audemars Piguet’s craftspeople. The Grandes Complications and Métiers d’Art Ateliers, situated at the heart of the spiral, infuse life into the numerous feats of mechanical mastery and design exhibited throughout the museum.
Today, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet offers a unique perspective of the Vallée de Joux and of the history of watchmaking—an ambitious architectural and geographical project made possible thanks to the creativity and collaboration of a host of experts, including architects, engineers and local artisans, as well as numerous departments within Audemars Piguet. All individuals involved pushed the limits of their craft to reach new heights. This is just the beginning of an ongoing story, it takes time to create a legacy.
Regarding the new museum, Jasmine Audemars, Audemars Piguet’s Chairwoman of the Board of Directors mentions: “We wanted visitors to experience our heritage, savoir-faire, cultural origins, and openness to the world in a building that would reflect both our rootedness and forward-thinking spirit. But, before all, we wanted to pay tribute to the watchmakers and craftspeople who have made what Audemars Piguet is today, generation after generation.”
Jasmine Audemars, Audemars Piguet’s Chairwoman of the Board of Directors
The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet exemplifies the spirit of visionary workmanship the Manufacture has always championed. After briefly retracing the development of watchmaking in the Vallée de Joux, known today as one of the cradles of Swiss complicated watches, the scenography presents Audemars Piguet’s rich legacy through a selection of the brand’s emblematic heritage and contemporary timepieces.
To offer visitors a diverse experience with crescendos, highpoints, and contemplative moments, German museum designer Atelier Brückner imagined the composition of the exhibition as a musical score. Interludes, including sculptures, automata, kinetic installations, and mock-ups of intricate mechanical movements, give life and rhythm to various aspects of horological technique and design. Visitors are also invited to try their hands at some of the ancestral techniques perpetuated by Audemars Piguet’s finishing experts, such as satin brushing and circular graining. The visit culminates at the center of the spiral with the display of Grandes Complications.
The showcases spanning over two centuries of history display more than 300 watches, including feats of complication, miniaturization, and unconventional designs. These watches of exception tell the story of how modest 19th-century artisans from an isolated valley at the heart of the Swiss Jura produced creations that caught the eye of metropolitan clients abroad and continue to captivate watch enthusiasts today across the world. The Manufacture’s complicated masterpieces are located at the center of the spiral, where the architectural intensity is at its highest.
The astronomical, chiming, and chronograph complications that have been at the core of Audemars Piguet since its establishment are orbiting around the ultra-complicated Universelle pocket watch from 1899. Inspired by the solar system, the spherical showcases of this section evoke the astronomical cycles of time at the heart of watchmaking. The watch exhibition ends on a rich collection of Royal Oak, Royal Oak Offshore, and Royal Oak Concept.
Audemars Piguet Universelle Pocket Watch from 1899
“The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is a unique place of discovery, learning, and conviviality where knowledge and savoir-faire are passed on to the next generation. The technical complexity of its architecture and scenography connects it to the highly complicated movement of a Grande Complication.” Sébastian Vivas Audemars Piguet’s Heritage and Museum Director.
Complementing the display of complicated timepieces, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet showcases the Manufacture’s ancestral savoir-faire through two specialized ateliers situated at the heart of the spiral. The first is dedicated to the Grandes Complications, where each watch composed of more than 648 components spends from 6 to 8 months in the hands of a single watchmaker before leaving the workshop. The second workshop hosts the Métiers d’Art, where Haute Joaillerie creations are conceived and crafted by highly skilled jewelers, gem-setters, and engravers. Looking at the past, present, and future, these two ateliers, where some of Audemars Piguet’s most intricate creations are still produced today, embody the Manufacture’s uncompromising spirit.
Furthering the company’s cultural and artistic engagement, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet will also be a fitting exhibition venue for some of the traveling artworks created by the Manufacture’s commissioned artists. Since 2012, Audemars Piguet has fostered a creative dialogue between contemporary art and Haute Horlogerie by commissioning artists to explore its geographic and cultural origins as well as themes including complexity and precision.
For the opening of its Musée Atelier, the Manufacture will exhibit commissioned artworks by long-lasting friends of the brand Dan Holdsworth, Quayola, and Alexandre Joly, which offer creative interpretations of Audemars Piguet’s origins in the Vallée de Joux.
Dan Holdsworth’s photograph “Vallée de Joux n° 10” from his photographic series The Vallée de Joux and Quayola’s “Remains #A_027” from Remains: Vallée de Joux will be complemented by a multimedia installation by Alexandre Joly. Together, these artworks plunge visitors into the Manufacture’s geographic, cultural, and technical universe through the lens of contemporary art.
Alexandre Joly’s new multimedia installation Subliminal Moving Shapes, 2019.
The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is located on Route de France 18, in Le Brassus, Switzerland. The museum visits are by appointment only and a ticket must be booked through the museum’s website. Onsite parking is available and the museum is wheelchair accessible.
For more info on Audemars Piguet click here.
