Audemars Piguet might have the most uniquely shaped watch of the year

Officially, it’s the year of ‘shaping materials’ for the Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet. That much is clear in the brand’s latest, most exciting projects. There are new watches, to be sure. But more interestingly, Audemars Piguet has just staged an immersive exhibition in Milan that’s open to the public.

In the Shaping Materials exhibition, a series of themed rooms covers the story of how the manufacture transforms raw materials into finished components. It opens, for example, in a room with hunks of simulated gold, steel, platinum and ceramic that can be placed on a pedestal to activate an audiovisual experience that evinces the qualities of each material. There’s also a legitimate chunk of iron from Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux, meant to represent the origins of metallurgy in the cradle of high-end watchmaking.

The idea is that Audemars Piguet’s fundamental strength is its creativity with materials. Noble metals such as gold and platinum have an intrinsic preciousness to them, but take it from the manufacture that created the Royal Oak—the first luxury steel watch—to imbue materials such as steel, titanium, carbon and ceramic with fineness through craftsmanship.

Some of the brand’s most exciting achievements of late are in the material realm. There is the new sand gold alloy, a beautiful shade that straddles pink and white gold. There’s also a duet of gold and ceramic mélanges announced by the brand’s R&D labs. Dubbed chroma gold and chroma ceramic, these combine different colours of the same material into a seamless, camouflage-patterned whole.

The Milan exhibition’s opening coincided with the announcements of two new models that tie suitably into the shapes and materials theme. The first is a comeback of Royal Oak Mini models, sized at 23mm, exclusively in three shades of gold that are finished with the Florentine jeweller Carolina Bucci’s frosted gold technique. Here, the precious metal is given an all-over treatment that renders it extra lustrous and shiny.

On the shapes front, the brand announced perhaps its most unusual design in years. Enter the Audemars Piguet [RE]Master02 Selfwinding, an asymmetrical watch with a brutalist case shape in sand gold. It’s part of the brand’s nascent [RE]Master collection, in which notable timepieces from the archives are resurfaced and updated to present-day haute horlogerie standards.

A [RE]Master, to be clear, is different from a re-issue or a re-edition. The brief and challenge of the collection is to remain faithful to the look of the original while updating the mechanical insides so that it is modern. Consider, for example, that the expected standards for power reserves, self-winding movements, water resistance and durability were different—lower, to put it plainly—decades ago.

The [RE]Master project started, according to Sébastian Vivas, the brand’s heritage and museum director, in 2015. Then CEO François-Henry Bennahmias had told Vivas to draw up a proposal list of watches to remaster. It’s extensive, as one would expect. “If I told you what’s on it, then you’d know what’s coming up,” he laughs when I press him for an example or two. “But we have enough to go on for many years.”

The [RE]Master02, for one, is a niche example of the house’s daring with unusual shapes. The original is a model, 5159BA to be precise, that was created in 1960. It was part of a wave of brutalistinspired watches in the decade, when the brand tapped into the angular geometry of the design movement. That was also a fruitful period of asymmetry for Audemars Piguet. Between 1959 and 1963, more than 30 asymmetrical models—each with less than 10 pieces—were produced.

The model 5159BA in particular was produced in just seven units. One piece is on display at the brand’s museum in Switzerland. The original was sized at 27.5mm in diameter, and the modern interpretation is a heftier 41mm—the upsizing due to the technical demands of present standards.

The shape itself is a challenge, says Vivas. Five replicas were made, before creating the [RE]Master, to get an understanding of the sloped case and crystal. When the sapphire crystal is not a circle, he explains, the difficulties of waterproofing increases. Case in point: the bevelled crystal of the [RE]Master02 took two years of research and development.

The [RE]Master02, limited to just 250 pieces, goes a bit further than just technical details. It is only the second watch to come in the brand’s new sand gold alloy which debuted this year. The parted dial has been designed with a marquetry technique. Each of its 12 sectors is individually cut and applied with thin gold lines separating them. The dial comes in varying shades of the house’s signature Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50 colour, with linear satin finishing that gives it a radiant effect.

Don’t call it a renaissance just yet, but there is a distinct sense with this watchmaker that a creative evolution is afoot. In addition to these projects and launches, there was an interesting detail when the brand held a press conference to unveil its new watches and exhibition in Milan. Besides Vivas, the key speakers were CEO Ilaria Resta and the jeweller Bucci. Before Resta assumed her position at the start of this year, her predecessor had announced an intent for the brand to focus on women.

A call like that can at times sound like a directive to merely make more small, gem-set watches. But the proof emerging from this watchmaker is shaping up to be different. It has behind it a veritable heritage of feminine perspectives and input—not to mention a host of unusual designs and creative ventures that could and do look fresh today. I asked Vivas, in as gentle a manner as I could put it, about the likelihood that people have come to only expect Royal Oaks from the brand. The Royal Oak, he replied, is a bit like a mountain. “There’s a lot behind it and a lot to come hopefully.”

The July/August ‘Cravings’ issue of Vogue Singapore is now available online and in-store.