Conceived as a space of live crafts, the Musée Atelier brings visitors in close contact with the Manufacture’s artisans and watchmakers, who infuse life into the feats of mechanical mastery and design exhibited throughout the museum.
Audemars Piguet’s Grande Complication watches are decorated, adjusted, assembled and cased in the Grandes Complications Atelier situated at the heart of the Musée Atelier’s glass spiral.
Each Grande Complication is made by the same watchmaker from beginning to end. The process stretches over six to eight months of relentless hard work.
Today, the Audemars Piguet Grandes Complications Atelier counts twelve specialised craftspeople.
Audemars Piguet’s Grandes Complications Atelier back in 1995.
2018. Royal Oak Offshore Grande Complication, clad in black ceramics and titanium.
We not only wanted visitors to be inspired by the heritage of Audemars Piguet and of the Vallée de Joux at large. We wanted them to experience the incredible work of our watchmakers who day after day create and restore within its walls some of Audemars Piguet's most complicated watches.
Olivia Giuntini
Chief Brand Officer
The Métiers d’Art Atelier offers a window onto the making of refined jewellery timepieces. Expert jewellers, gem-setters and engravers work hand in hand to create feats of design and perpetuate traditional savoir-faire.
While jewellers create gold or platinum shapes on the basis of designers’ sketches, gem-setters carefully select the right stones before positioning them one by one onto the metal.
2019. Sapphire Orbe
Mostly set with graded blue and orange sapphires, this unique creation bears the name of “Orbe,” the river which crosses Le Brassus, where Audemars Piguet is deeply rooted.
Engravers meticulously work with burins and knives to produce modelled, lined or lacquered engraving in the utmost respect for traditions
In the Métiers d’Art Atelier, craftspeople work facing the pastoral landscape of the Vallée de Joux.
It is in the workshop where Audemars Piguet debuted in 1875 at the top of the historical house that a handful of specialised watchmakers restore antique timepieces to their original condition.
The historical models that are given a new life by a small team of specialised watchmakers call for mastery of age-old skills.
They often harbour a combination of several of the most complex horological mechanisms, some of which are now extremely rare.
Watch external parts and movement components preserved in the Audemars Piguet Restoration Atelier.
Inside the Atelier, the fundamental gestures and tools have remained the same for the past century.
Audemars Piguet is today one of the unique companies still able to restore any watch originally made in its ateliers, or in antique Vallée de Joux workshops.
This five-hour experience, which combines a guided visit to the Musée Atelier and the Masterclass itself, will send visitors on an exclusive journey to decode Haute Horlogerie’s secrets. By diving into Audemars Piguet’s universe, guests will discover how infinite details can transform a functional object into a work of art.
