Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Audemars Piguet Holding SA
Making of - Musée Atelier / AUDEMARS PIGUET
June 25th, 2020, marked the opening of the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet. Discover its origins and find out why this 7 year project is so close to our hearts.
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Transcript (9 segments)
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Olivier Audemars0:06
Audemars Piguet was born in Le Brassus in 1875, when my great-grandfather, Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet, set up their first workshop in what is today the founders' house. We have a history, we have a tradition. We've been in business for many, many years. And it's obviously important also to deliver and to show people, whether they are seven years old or 77 years old, what Audemars Piguet is all about, at the same time without ever giving the feeling that we are capitalizing only on this.
The purpose of this new museum is to tell the story that lies at the heart of Audemars Piguet, its constituent parts, its history, its leading personalities, its pioneering spirit, and the link that exists between Le Brassus and the world. When we saw the design by Bjarke Ingels from BIG, I must say that I was bowled over. You immediately get the message. Bjarke also embodies the spirit of Audemars Piguet, the desire to think outside the box and create extraordinary things. A truly impressive design that is simple, coherent, complex and fluid, all at the same time.
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Bjarke Ingels1:17
What we've tried to do is to create a building that almost performs like a mechanism. Watchmaking is very often about making the maximum amount of impact or performance with a minimum amount of material. So since the museum is like this double spiral, the roof is like a floating spring made out of brass. The one thing that carries the roof is actually the glass. Glass itself is very, very strong. It's in compression many times stronger than high-grade steel, but under tension it has some weaknesses. Afloat glass is totally flat, is a perfect reflection. And it was kind of the key challenge to get that quality through the project. Now, seeing the building, you're in the glass, you're looking through so many glass layers, but you're in the glass world with no direct comparison from no glass to a glass. It's the magic of what's missing that becomes incredible. It's not the beauty of the columns or the beauty of the walls. It's the complete absence of columns and walls that makes the space feel so special and incredible.
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Olivier Audemars2:33
Based on the story that we wanted to tell, the exhibition-space designers have built the equivalent of a music score with highlights, refrains and interludes. So while the museum is fully open and everything is revealed as soon as we step into it, we wanted to create those strong points just to structure the story. The exhibition space features an extraordinary collection of 300 watchmaking works of art that tell 250 years of history. At the centre of the museum, you'll find one of the most complicated pocket watches in the world, 'L'Universelle'. It's around this watch that all of the other masterpieces in the museum gravitate. To think that, according to our records, this watch was made and delivered in 1899, and it's still one of the most complicated timepieces that have ever been made.
Everyone who has been involved in the development of this project, around a hundred people, have had to leave their comfort zone, find new solutions, and work and communicate with each other so as finally to achieve an exceptional result.
What we also want to do is pay homage to all of the watchmakers and craftsmen and craftswomen who have made AP what it is today, and this is why we wanted a workshop museum, in other words a museum where watchmakers and craftsmen and craftswomen still continue today to create or restore the marvels that Audemars Piguet produces. And having the watchmakers in the spiral was a major plus for us; it's in contrast to the conventional museums where you only see an object. This is enhancing the storytelling. For Audemars Piguet, showcasing these professionals involved purely in watchmaking represents the essence of watchmaking. It's extremely important to preserve watchmaking know-how.
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Watchmaker4:33
We had to totally rethink our everyday life as watchmakers. We had to begin by finding a sufficiently functional building that was suited to the site and also chimed with the concept of the architects. We really have an exceptional place when it comes to the lighting. And it's a brilliant way to showcase what we do.
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Bjarke Ingels4:57
I was incredibly pleased, because of course we've been obsessing about this building for so long, to finally arrive and feel how naturally it floats, how sort of elegantly the roof hovered and how effortless everything felt, even if I know that it's been a ton of efforts to get here. It really had this kind of natural simplicity that I was dreaming about.
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Olivier Audemars5:18
It's a new chapter in the history of the manufacture. And I think it's very important for us to show this global concept that blends tradition and innovation. We are writing a new page of the Audemars Piguet history as we speak. And hopefully 30, 50 years from now, people will look at it and say: 'Audemars Piguet was again thinking forward.'