“In an age increasingly overtaken by AI, we still dream of mechanics,” a historian working at the Audemars Piguet: Perspectives On Time tells me. We are engulfed in the mechanical brilliance of the storied haute horlogerie manufacture, for a very special exhibition taking place at National Museum of Singapore. Curated with rare timepieces taken directly from the Audemars Piguet Museum—some of which are appearing outside of Switzerland for the first time—the retrospective is more than just a look into its heritage, it is a succinctly curated journey designed to educate both serious collectors and newcomers alike about the innovation and craftsmanship that define the Swiss manufacture.
Spanning four sections, it begins with of course, a history lesson.Where some of the brand’s very first designs are being showcased, including unique designs from the Art Deco era—a key time period for the manufacture. The Streamline Jumping Hour in yellow gold from 1929, for one, felt three steps ahead of the digital age: using jumping numerals to display the time instead of the traditional hands. Miniatures too, stand out here, with the Ultra-thin Calibre 200SQ3 Coin Watch playfully built into an actual 1904 US 20-dollar gold coin on display.
The second chapter brings us into the cosmos—and uncovers the essence behind one of the manufacture’s most distinctive complications: the perpetual calendar. Rather than separating the art of celestial observation and astronomy from the precise craft of timekeeping, Audemars Piguet has long recognised that once upon a time, people experience the passing of time differently—and read their time in the sky. It is here that the exhibition’s most extraordinary timepiece is encased: the 1921 “Grosse Pièce” (Smith and Son Ultra-Complicated Pocket Watch), one of the most complicated pocket watches Audemars Piguet has ever designed. Within the single object, 19 complications come alive against a backdrop of London’s night sky. Having lived in the private Olmsted collection for decades, the manufacture finally reclaimed it at Sotheby’s New York late last year.
Meanwhile, chapters three and four bring us deeper into the exquisite craft of the manufacture. In ‘The Beauty Within’, dive into the wondrous art of openworking, with heritage pieces showcasing one of the very first pocket watches that defined watchmaking’s most demanding art form, and how the precision and savoir-faire required has been consistently refined over the years—even being worked into some of its most novel complications.
The exhibition’s final chapter—‘Giving Time a Voice’—might be its most fascinating one. The mechanical movements of a watch can be heard when you imagine it, but Audemars Piguet sought to tell the time with sound. Here, the exhibition displays the pieces that defined the manufacture’s chiming mechanism which used hammers, gongs and triggers, including a rare First Repeater Wristwatch from 1892. To explain how the mechanism actually works, an interactive booth helmed by one of the museum’s historians gives insight into the evolution of the minute repeater’s inner mechanics, even demonstrating how time is ‘calculated’ through sound.
To celebrate the opening of Audemars Piguet: Perspectives on Time, it was no happenstance that the Swiss manufacture gathered a flock of local filmmakers, musicians, writers and artists under the roof of our National Museum last week. A collective of Singapore’s most diligent talents, these folks understand the significance of time best; always doggedly racing against the hours and minutes that define their work. With time a constant in our minds, Vogue Singapore asked this creative crowd what the value of time is to them.
Anthony Chen, filmmaker
“Time holds so much weight in my world. Because I’ve literally worked with the same two actors across 14 years, especially with Jia Ler, whom I’ve watched grow up. Through my lens, I’ve captured three decades of Singapore since Ilo Ilo. My Growing Up trilogy is a time capsule in itself. What I’ve captured isn’t time, it’s people growing and changing through it.”
Nicole Midori Woodford, filmmaker and writer
“Within storytelling, there are an infinite amount of ways of telling a story, and time is exactly that value. I’m an editor myself, so how a film might play out is so varied and it can be non-linear. As a filmmaker, time is the infinite potential of storytelling.”
Jeremy Chua, executive director of Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF)
“Time is a luxury, really. It’s a very good medium for meditation of ideas and the improvement of your craft. Only with time can you do something again and again and again. Edit it. Refine it. The value of time is so invisible. I think of the word maturity here; it’s such an invaluable word. It shows you have grown, but what it forgets is that you have grown over a long cost of time.”
Nelicia Low, filmmaker
“My first film took five years to write. So much of making a film is meditative. It takes so much time and it feels so counterintuitive to what people think it is. But some things just take time—even if that means five or 10 years.”
Luca Lum, artist
“When it comes to Singapore, what is interesting and also harrowing to think about is the amount of discussions that have been going around the preparation for the future. When you think about the master plans that have tabulated what’s worth losing and what’s worth gaining—just thinking about the Southern Islands and the coral reefs. Thinking about how so much of the present has been predetermined. More and more, the world feels very eschatological. It feels very concerned with endings. More and more, you would see time as an infrastructure being harnessed by governments and individuals. So time is a completely political subject. That’s the value in understanding how it’s produced and regulated.”
Shuming He, filmmaker
“Time is whatever that is present. I’m always faced with the anxiety of what might happen tomorrow, so I strive to be present.”
Ervin Han, filmmaker
“Time is everything. As filmmakers, we’re always running out of time—at some point you have to stop and hand it in. There’s a saying that I quite like: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.””
