AUDEMARS PIGUET, maker of high-end luxury Swiss wristwatches, delves deep into its long history in a new exhibition in Shanghai that’s disguised as an art installation.
The show titled “To Break the Rules, You Must First Master Them” is set up at Yuz Museum, a private contemporary gallery and encompasses more than 200 watches spanning the life of the Swiss firm. This exhibition, says its chairwoman Jasmine Audemars, is the most ambitious ever organised by Audemars Piguet outside its museum in Le Brassus.
“A few people know who we are. No one even knows where Le Brassus is.” says Francois-Henry Bennahmias, the watchmaker’s chief executive with a wry smile.
“Every time we share the Audemars Piguet’s stories, people say, ‘Wow! We didn’t know that’. And so we realised that everything about Audemars Piguet should be shared with others.”
Designed by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, the installation is a piece of architecture in itself.
Mathieu made a huge copper ring placed in the Yuz Museum to embody a watch dial – or the ring of time. The centrepiece is a pile of boulders representing the watchmaker’s mountain home. It is surrounded by 12 doors, each of which opens to reveal a story about Audemars Piguet: from it origins to today, from watch-making to contemporary art, from the small town in the Valle de Joux to other parts of the world.
Watching the installation from above, you see the visitors walking in criss-cross lines inside a huge watch dial. “In a way they act like the hands of a watch,” says the French designer.
Back down in the installation hall, you feel like you are turning the clock back to the very beginning of time.
“This rock is a perfect piece for Audemars Piguet. It signifies the beginning,” says Lehanneur.
Indeed, without a rock, Audemars Piguet would not be recognised as a watchmaker.
The company is one of the highest-end watches, and one of the few remaining independent maisons. It was founded in Valle de Joux in the Swiss Canton of Vaud by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet in 1875.
The landscape of Valle de Joux is rugged and the mountains are often capped with snow for nine months. Unlike Lausanne, it is not a place for people to lived or for crops to grow. In the old day, the Combiers, as the natives of Valle de Joux are known, had to forge knives and tools over the long winter and trade these for potatoes and wine with the French who live on the other side of the mountain when summer arrived
It is, however, the perfect place for a horologist. Locals make the rocks pay for such a long and harsh winter by extracting top-quality iron ore for the watch industry.
“The quiet of the valley with its magnificent views means that the Audemars Piguet watchmakers have plenty of time to concentrate on the complexity of the watch,” the French designer says.
Visitors to the exhibition access the valley through Room No 1 – The Origin. The story of Audemars Piguet starts in Room No 2, where the family crest is portrayed along with flags, symbols and coats of arms.
“There are many things to say about a 141-year-old firm and so I needed 12 rooms for 12 chapters of the Audemars Piguet story,” he says.
Other rooms showcase the vast collection of heritage watches – “1875 Jules-Louis Audemars School Watch”, for example. This pocket watch is the genesis of Audemars Piguet. Jules-Louis Audemars created it to mark his apprenticeship prior to establishing the company with Edward-Auguste Piguet the same year. Room No 6 is a fascinating stop, dedicated to the design and evolution of time pieces influenced by cultural movements, which range from Art Nouveau in the 1900s to the hippie movement of the 1960s.
Visitors can also experience what it is like to be a watchmaker by drilling the watch dial or working with a tiny screw.
“I want the visitor to treat the show like an art exhibition,” says Mathieu. “You can go fast – or you can go slowly. You can spend more time in one room and little in another. It’s up to you.
“At Audemars Piguet art exhibition, you have your own time. You’re a piece of time.”
-“To Break the Rules, You Must First Master Them” art exhibition by Audemars Piguet is on show at Shanghai’s Yuz Museum until Novem-ber 13. Dubai and New York City are the next stops for the exhibition.