Audemars Piguet 150th anniversary celebrations: the brand invited the press and customers to Le Brassus

Since 1875, Audemars Piguet's destiny has undergone many twists and turns. Crises, industrial growth, stagnation, international expansion, and worldwide success have marked its journey, as they have for many other important watchmakers in the Vallée de Joux. This celebration of heritage that Audemars Piguet is now showcasing on the occasion of its 150th anniversary is also that of an entire region, which since the 15th century has managed to join forces to continue to play a key role in the industry.

The story begins in 1875. While Jule Louis Audemars was making his first watches, he decided to join forces with Edward Auguste Piguet six years later to overcome the difficulties encountered at the time due to the poor economic situation, aggravated by the growing competition from the rapidly industrializing American watchmaking industry. In December 1881, the two co-founders signed an initial partnership agreement. The two watchmakers decided from the outset to divide the tasks between them: Edward Auguste Piguet, an influential communicator with a well-filled address book, would take on the commercial and financial responsibility for the company, while Jules Louis Audemars, a genius of watchmaking complications, would retain control of the workshop he had founded in 1875. On 6 December 1882, when the Swiss Intellectual Property Office had just been set up, the company registered a trademark and the company name: ‘Audemars, Piguet & Cie, manufacturers, Brassus. Watch movements and cases made by them.’ This last point – the complete manufacture of the watch – is central to the brand's industrial integration strategy since, at the time, the system of ‘établissage’ was the norm. Since then, Audemars Piguet, still in family hands, has made considerable progress in this integration.

One hundred fifty years later, the Audemars Piguet factory is one of the most vertically integrated in the industry, with an annual production of 51,000 watches. During the celebrations on 17 and 18 February, the brand invited the press, including Luxury Tribune, to an exclusive preview of its newly built manufacture on the Arc Campus, which is in the final stages of installation. Visitors discovered spacious work areas on three floors in a new building reminiscent of half a watch dial, covering 17,000 m² and connected to the current Manufacture des Forges by side walkways. The factory will be fully operational by summer 2025. And that's not counting the construction of the brand's new industrial building in Meyrin, which began in 2023.

Also during the celebrations, Audemars Piguet presented new watchmaking innovations, including a brand new Calibre 7138, a new generation of automatic movement with perpetual calendar. This makes it more user-friendly by allowing all the watch's functions to be adjusted for the first time using an ‘all-in-the-crown’ system. Unlike other movements on the market that have the same way of bringing the settings together in the crown, this one allows each function of the perpetual calendar to be adjusted independently of the others.

The festivities continued with a live show featuring the highlights of the brand's history, punctuated by dances and texts recited by Ilaria Resta, CEO of Audemars Piguet, and Sebastian Vivas, Director of Heritage and the Museum. The gala evening brought guests together for a dinner prepared by Emmanuel Renaut et Dominic Crenn chefs and a performance by the star Lucky Daye.