Audemars piguet Genève, “Jules Audemars –Grande Sonnerie Carillon” - 2002 limited edition

 Audemars Piguet Jules Grande Sonnerie Watch.

The minute repeater carillon is a mechanism of great complexity that strikes the hours, quarters and minutes on request. These indications are obtained by 3 hammer strokes on different gongs: a low pitched one for the hours; a high pitched one for the minutes and one intermediate pitch (the one that allows for a carillon effect on the quarter hours). Striking power is calculated to achieve subtle balance and, if this balance gets to be too strong, it would muffle the sound. But in case of being too weak, the sound would be inaudible. Audemars Piguet developed the first minute repeating mechanism for a wristwatch in 1985.

Repeater movements consist of tiny parts manufactured to extremely fine tolerances. During movement assembly, the watchmaker has to hand-finish many of these components to arrive at the desired result.

While minute repeaters chime hours, quarters and minutes on 2 gongs with 2 hammers, the present watch, part of  “Jules Audemars” series, will chime the quarters with 3 hammers on 3 gongs, adding a further tone to the “dingdong” enchanted connoisseurs are so familiar with. 

[Source: Audemars Piguet and Antiquorum's Magazine]

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Audemars Piguet Royal Oak "End of Days" Offshore Wristwatch

The End of Days is the king of the Royal Oak Offshore Audemars Piguet Chronographs. Arnold Schwarzenegger wore it in the movie "End of Days" and made of the wristwatch the collectible timepiece it is.
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California.

Schwarzenegger began weight-training at fifteen. He was awarded the title of Mr. Universe at age 22 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest a total of seven times. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent face in the bodybuilding sport long after his retirement, and has written several books and numerous articles on the sport.

Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon, noted for his lead role in such films as Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator. He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" and the "Styrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnold Strong" and "Arnie" during his acting career, and more recently the "Governator" (a portmanteau of Governor and the Terminator, one of his film roles).

As a Republican, he was first elected on October 7, 2003, in a special recall election to replace then-Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger was sworn in on November 17, 2003, to serve the remainder of Davis's term. Schwarzenegger was then re-elected on November 7, 2006, in California's 2006 gubernatorial election, to serve a full term as governor, defeating Democrat Phil Angelides, who was California State Treasurer at the time. Schwarzenegger was sworn in for a second term on January 5, 2007. In May 2004 and 2007, he was named as one of the Time 100 people who help shape the world.

In 1998 Arnold Schwarzenegger, long time collector of watches, visited Audemars Piguet’s headquarters in Le Brassus (Switzerland) in Vallée de Joux. It was then that the collaboration between the legendary watch manufacturer and Schwarzenegger began. One year later, the film “End of Days” was introduced with the Royal Oak Offshore timepiece being worn by Arnold. The collaboration continued and the establishment of an on-going charitable partnership between Audemars Piguet and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is now the 38th Governor of the State of California, begun.

In 2007, Audemars Piguet and Governor Schwarzenegger introduced no less than three timepieces to their collection of limited-editions. Arnold’s After-School All-Stars, the charity founded by the Governor in 1993, includes a Royal Oak Offshore “Arnold’s All-Stars” Chronograph with date and small seconds, a Jules Audemars Chronograph & Perpetual Calendar and a Jules Audemars Dual Time power reserve. The proceeds from the sales of just these three timepieces are expected to raise nearly $1.5 million for the charity.

After-School All-Stars provides comprehensive after school programs that are fun for kids and also keeps them safe and helps them achieve success in school and life by improving kids’ lives by nurturing their minds, bodies and spirits through programs that incorporate independent learning, academics and enrichment activities. After-School All-Star serves 35,000 youth annually through after school and summer programs in 15 cities across the country.












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Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak Offshore Brazilian Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello Limited Edition

(Brazilian Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello)

The Audemars Piguet's popular Royal Oak Offshore collection was produced as a limited edition tribute to celebrated Brazilian Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello with only 1,650 pieces. It maintains the Royal Oak Offshore's durable design with an anti-shock ceramic bezel, engraved case, push button operation and is water resistant to 100m. It's available in titanium, platinum or 18k pink gold cases.
Rubens Gonçalves "Rubinho" Barrichello was born on May 23, 1972 in São Paulo. He is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. Following the management buy-out of the Honda racing team, with whom Barrichello competed during the 2008 season, he was confirmed for 2009 as Jenson Button's team mate in the new Brawn GP team. Barrichello came in third in the 2009 championship, and will leave Brawn to race for WilliamsF1 in 2010.
Barrichello has scored the fourth highest points total in Formula One history. Barrichello drove for Ferrari from 2000 to 2005, as Michael Schumacher's team-mate, enjoying considerable success including finishing as championship runner-up in 2002 and 2004. Schumacher's retirement at the end of 2006 made Barrichello the most experienced driver on the grid, and at the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix he became the most experienced driver in F1 history.
As a young, aspiring driver, Barrichello looked up to the late Ayrton Senna, and when he joined Formula One, Senna in return considered him his protégé. As of the 2009 Formula One season Barrichello is the only driver left competing in Formula One to have raced against Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

References:
26286RO.OO.D002CR.01

Movement: Calibre: 2326/2840, self-winding

Case: 18-carat pink gold with titanium pushpieces and crown protector; ceramic medallion bearing the inscription

“Royal Oak Offshore Limited Edition Rubens Barrichello”, “R. Barrichello – 257 – New Grand Prix Record” and adorned with the Rubens Barrichello logo;

Water resistant to 100m

Bezel, push pieces: Ceramic

Crown: Titanium with ceramic insert

Dial: White, partially open-worked, with exclusive “Méga Tapisserie Racing” motif

Strap: Crocodile leather with exclusive AP folding clasp; titanium attachments

Functions: Hours and minutes; small seconds at 6 o’clock; central chronograph with sweep seconds hand, 30- minute and 12-hour counters; tachometric ring; date












[Source: Audemars Piguet]

Audemars Piguet: The Royal Oak Carbon Concept

Carbon fibre has been the preferred material for high-performance applications that demand sturdiness. Formula 1 race cars, America’s Cup yachts and, even aerospace vehicles, have fully leveraged the material’s technical properties: strength and lightness.
Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet is a pioneer according to the use of carbon fibre for function as well as form. The Royal Oak Carbon Concept is surprisingly light thanks to materials such as forged carbon, amorphous carbon coatings, ceramics, titanium, and anodized aluminium, which forms the watch’s green central bridge. The absence of a dial provides a full view of the hand-wound Caliber 2895 movement’s key components: the tourbillon carriage—comprising more than 70 parts yet weighing a mere 0.45 grams—and the column wheel, which is the chronograph’s nerve centre. Audemars presents a novel twist on the 30-minute chronograph with a linear minute counter consisting of two columnar scales, with tens of minutes on the left and single minutes on the right. Tiny windows that correspond to each numeral mark elapsed time by changing from white to black. The wearer shifts from winding to time-setting by adjusting the stem.




Technical data:

Movement
Calibre: 2895, hand-wound with tourbillon
Total diameter: 151/3 lignes (34.60 mm)
Casing-diameter: 33.80 mm
Thickness: 12.01 mm
34 jewels
384 parts
Power reserve: 237 hours
Cadence of the balance:
21,600 vibrations per hour
Finishing: hand-polished bevelling, sides hand-drawn with a file, matt surface, sapphire-blasted
Carbon mainplate, eloxed aluminium bridges

Case
Forged carbon
Ceramic bezel
Caseback ring in black PVD-coated titanium
Diameter: 44 mm
Total thickness: 15.85 mm
Sapphire crystal caseback
Water-resistance: 100 m

Display
Integrated onto the movement
Graduated dial ring with luminescent hour-markers and white minute markers
Openworked luminescent hour and minute hands

Strap
Hand-sewn alligator leather with large square scales,
AP folding clasp in titanium

Functions
Hours and minutes
Linear chronograph minute counter with central sweep seconds hand
Power-reserve indication
Selection indicator

Audemars Piguet and sports: Golf, basketball, cricket or sky.

Even though when having to relate Audemars Piguet to ssport we would usually think about it Royal Oak Offshore and its connection to the ocean, the luxurious wristwatch company is also related to other sports such as: golf, basketball, cricket or sky.

According to basketball, the company has honoured the dominating championship Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal with its Royal Oak Offshore Shaquille O’Neal edition.

(Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal)

Audemars Piguet's legendary Royal Oak Offshore proves that this design is one of the greatest in high luxury sports watches. Introduced more than twelve years ago as a variation to their already successful Royal Oak watch collection, Audemars Piguet produced a watch which further expanded boundaries in both luxury and size, paving the way for much of todays current celebration of boldly dimensioned watches, as well as the enthusiastic acceptance of unconventional materials such as carbon fibre or rubber for luxury timepieces. The Offshore watch collection from Audemars Piguet encompasses everything from an automatic chronograph with date, to an automatic chronograph with full perpetual calendar and moonphases. Stunning limited editions such as the Offshore Alinghi Polaris or the Offshore Rubens Barrichello series incorporate innovative materials or technical solutions that are refreshingly unconventional, yet perfectly in tune with the ethic of perfection that Audemars Piguet has pursued as a manufacturer of haute horlogerie since its founding in 1875.

Regarding to cricket, Sachin “Little Master” Tendulkar was Audermars Piguet’s ambassador for years because of its exceptional punch style of hitting the ball.

(Sachin “Little Master” Tendulkar)

According to golf, more than ten ambassadors represent the company like the open champion Cristie Kerr, Nick Faldo, Vijay Singh or Morgan Pressel

(Cristie Kerr)

The Royal Oak Offshore watch line from Audemars Piguet demonstrates Audemars Piguet's ability to cultivate classic designs which continue to captivate watch lovers. Offered in a variety of metals, including steel, titanium, gold, and platinum, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore watch collection shows off the immaculate finish work that has long distinguished the Royal Oak watch line.

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Joseph Bonanno's Patek Philippe & Cie, Genève Watch

Joseph Bonanno, Sr. (1905-2002) Joseph Bonanno was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Italy, to Salvatore Bonanno and Catarina Bonventre. In 1906, the 26-year-old Salvatore took his young wife and one-year-old son to the United States. At age 26, he became one of the youngest bosses of a crime family, as well as an influential member of the "Commission", a nation-wide organisation formed in 1931

Bonanno is said to have been one of the models for the character "Vito Corleone" in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. Both Bonanno and Corleone wanted their sons to succeed them, and both allegedly wanted their crime families to stay out of the narcotics rackets (although many of the soldiers and associates of the Bonanno crime family were dealing in drugs, most known was later Boss of family Carmine Galante).

Joseph Bonanno’s Patek Philippe & Cie, Genève was given to Joseph Bonanno Sr. by Charlie “Lucky” Luciano in Palermo, Sicily, in 1957. It’s No. 966280, case No. 302352, Ref. 1516. It was produced in the late 40s. 18K yellow gold wristwatch with a 14K yellow gold brick link bracelet. The watch has been authenticated by Joseph Bonanno's daughter Catherine Bonanno Genovese, in a document included in the lot.

Joseph Bonanno, Sr. died in Tucson, Arizona on May 12, 2002 at the age of 97, of natural causes.
This watch was sold for $36,000 in the last Antiquorum’s auction in March, 4^th and 5^th in New York.

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Worldwide Cult Watches

According to the Baselworld 2009 Daily News Magazine, there are very few timepieces that can be worn an entire lifetime and then passed down to the next generation without going out of fashion.
An example of this is represented by Rolex as it is a watchmaking company that focuses on the improvement of the existing watches in order to have perfect results by modifying the movements.

Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

The Cosmograph Daytona is an example of a watch that became a cult, like the Submariner Date. This year, during the Baselworld, Rolex introduced the Submariner Date in a yellow rolesor case, featuring a new unidirectional rotatable bezel in yellow gold with a balck Cerachrom disc and a 120-notch anti-reverse click sys¬tem. Waterproof to a depth of 300 metres, the Oyster Perpetual Submariner Date is chronometer-certi¬fied and bears a high quality manufacture movement.

Rolex Submariner Date

Another cult watch par excellence is the Monaco from TAG Heuer is another example of a watch that turned into a cult. It was first presented 40 years ago when the watch appeared in a square case contrary to the presumed rules of horlogerie. The Monaco became a fixed feature of the TAG Heuer collection.

The TAG Heuer Monaco

Omega Speedmaster Professional is not only a cult but also the watch that first reached the moon!

Omega Speedmaster Professional

According to women, their favourite cult watch is represented by the Happy Sport from Chopard because of its charming design concept.

The Chopard Happy Sport

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Mahatma Gandhi Zenith Pocketwatch

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, India.

He is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore. In India, on the other hand, he is known as Bapu (bāpu or "Father"). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi was a prominent political and spiritual leader of the Indian Independece Movement and an inspiration to Martin Luther King between many other major figures till nowadays. He was named by the Time Magazine as the second most important man of the 20^th Century (after Albert Einstein). Mahatma means “Great Soul” and, being coherent with such an honorofic tittle, he was a pioneer of “Satyagraha” meaning the resistance to tiranny through mass civil disobedience and total non-violence through which he led India to independence from Britain.

According to the past March Antiquorum Auctioneers’Catalogue, Mahatma Gandhi’s Pocketwatch was later given to his grandniece, Abha Gandhi. Accompanied by Gandhi’s sandals, bowl, plate, glasses, images of Gandhi and letters of authenticity from Ghita Mehta

The watch’s brand: Zenith, movement No. 421357, case No. 49529. Made circa 1910. Historically Important, it is a pocket watch with alarm function and Arabic numerals. Its diameter is 49 mm and its thickness 16 mm. It was sold in $2,096,000 in New York, between the 4^th and the 5^th of March, during Antiquorum’s auction.

The Sandals: Gandhi apparently gave the sandals to a British military officer in Aden in 1931 during his trip from Bombay to London.

The Bowl / Plate: The bowl and the plate (thali) were also gifts that Gandhi bestowed upon Abha, his grandniece.

The Glasses: His pair of glasses were given to Colonel H. H. Shiri Diwan Nawab, Sir Muhammed Mahabat Khanji, the 3rd Rasul Khanji, Nawab Sahib of Junagadh, by Gandhi, most probably at his Ashram in Ahmedabad in the 1930s.











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The History of IWC

IWC began when Florentine Ariosto Jones, an American engineer and watchmaker, decided to travel to Switzerland and found the "International Watch Company" in 1868. With a highly-qualified Swiss crew and the most modern machines from overseas, he expected to make high-quality mechanisms and watch parts for the American market.
Later, he met Johann Heinrich Moser, a watchmaker and a manufacturer from Schaffhausen that made pocket watches for, among others, the empire of tsars. Moser, a pioneer in the industry, had just installed in Schaffhausen a hydraulic station run by the Rhin waters. This station provided cheap energy but to very few people. It was just what Jones needed and he settled the company IWC there.
Jones, besides being an excellent businessman, was an excellent watch designer. His first mechanic pocket watches with "Jones caliber" presented exceptional characteristics.
Some years later after its foundation, the ownership of the "American" watch factory was taken by Swiss hands. At the same time the philosophy of the product "Probus Scafusia" (the confirmed excellence of Schaffhausen) would arise maintained unalterable till our day.
Johannes Rauschenbach-Vogel bought the company in 1880. Four generations of the Rauschenbach family owned IWC, with varying names. Only a year after the sale, Johannes Rauschenbach died. His son, Johannes Rauschenbach-Schenk, was 25 years old when he took over the IWC company and ran it successfully until his own death on March 2 of 1905.
The manufacture showed IWC's spirit of innovation already in 1885 with the first pocket watches with digital indication according to Mr. Pallweber patent. Soon, IWC developed pocket watch mechanisms that even today and once revised would reach the precision of a chronometer. Nowadays these IWC watches are extremely rare and sought after collector's items.
After the death of J. Rauschenbach-Schenk in 1905, his wife, two daughters and their husbands, Ernst Jakob Homberger (director of G. Fischer AG in Schaffhausen) and Dr. Carl Jung (psychologist and psychiatrist), became the new owners of IWC. Following the death of his father-in-law, Ernst Jakob Homberger had a considerable influence on the Schaffhausen watchmaking company's affairs and guided IWC through one of the most turbulent epochs in Europe's history.
During the 1930's, IWC presented the first watch especially designed for aviators with antimagnetic mechanism. In 1940 the Big Pilot's watch marked another important milestone for IWC. Towards 1948, the Mark 11 appeared armored against magnetic fields. This protection would be later used by the Ingenieur and nowadays by many IWC watches.
Hans Ernst Homberger was the third and last of the Rauschenbach heirs to run IWC as a sole proprietor. He had joined his father's company in 1934 and took control of IWC after his death in April 1955. In 1957 he added a new wing to the factory and in the same year set up a modern pension fund for the staff. He bought new machines to meet new demands and continuously brought his production technology up to what were considered the very latest standards.
Nearly the end of the forties, during the hard competition among Swiss manufacturers to create the first automatic mechanism that allowed to wind up the watch both sides, IWC was right ahead. IWC's patented automatic spring has not been improved to our days.
The IWC 1955 Ingenieur equipped with it was the most advanced of its time. Edmund Hillary climbed the highest mountains with it. Today it has become a classic object of desire for collectors.
The Yatch Club or the Ingenieur SL from the sixties and seventies were even more robust. The growing popularity of water sports made IWC launch the Aquatimer in 1967. It was water-resistant to 200 meters and had and internal revolving ring to indicate the time of immersion.
1969 saw IWC present its first quartz wristwatch. The Da Vinci quartz watch was fitted with a Beta 21 caliber movement. Due to an industry crisis, IWC avoided heavy investment in this technology and went back to produce what it was best at - mechanical movements of great technical refinement.
In 1978, IWC introduced the world's first titanium watchcase and bracelet, which at the time was thought impossible because of the difficulty of working with titanium which required an oxygen-free environment. Today, IWC manufacturers the world's most sophisticated bracelet system using a solid pin held in each bracelet link by a push-button lock on the underside of each bracelet link - allowing the pin to be totally locked in regardless of any damage.
Today, IWC is most famous for its Pilot line of watches whose design was inspired by World War 2 and the Portuguese line of watches. They have approximately houndreds employees and since 2000 IWC have belonged to the watch division of Richemont SA.

Corum Tourbillon and Classical

The Corum Tourbillon and Classical collection, as the name suggests, is devoted to the most elegant and complicated watches. The current collection is comprised of the Corum Classical Billionaire Tourbillon, a diamond and sapphire covered masterpiece of watchmaking, the Corum Golden Tourbillon Panoramique with its tourbillon movement floating between sapphire bridges, and the skeleton dialed Corum Classical Skylight Skeleton.

Audemars Piguet Case Dating and Identification

Model identification

Every Audemars Piguet watch has a movement number engraved on the mainplate, generally next to the balance, and a case number which is engraved on the outside of the case-back. In the example picture: Number 25 is the sequential number of these particular model/reference. D67746 is the case number, sequential across all watches manufactured by Audemars Piguet. There is no certain way to tell the age of an Audemars Piguet , but certain estimates can be made with the case number: there are 100,000 watches with the same letter, and AP manufactures 20,000 watches a year (VERY aproximately) so that the letter of the serial number changes aproximately every 5 years. A known fact is that production of the F series started sometime in 2004. In the example watch with case number D67746: D started in 1994, plus 1 year per 20,000 on the case number will make this watch a 1997-98.

Audemars Piguet Contemporary Collection

For the beggining of the third millenium, Audemars Piguet Contemporary Collection Millenary reinvented class, by proposing a variation on a pure oval inspired by one of mankind masterpieces: the Roman Coliseum. The Millenary for lady, stunning for their grace and soft lines, represent the dream of the urban woman, always concerned with her originality. In it's Haute Jewellery versions, zapphires and diamonds adorn this watches with insurpasable elegance.

Audemars Piguet Ladies Collection

2004 was the Femmes du Monde year at Audemars Piguet, and it proved to be a great one, with several new lines introduced. The square is reinvented by the Deva, and enhanced by sapphires and vivid colors in the Myriade, while the Danae conceals the secret of time beneath its cover. A longtime ladies classic, the Promesse line is now expanded with several new versions: a large in stainless steel with laquered dial and a whole variety of diamond motifs on the mini.

Audemars Piguet Tradition Of Excellence Collection

Since 1999, Audemars Piguet has slowly been creating the first five of a total of eight masterpieces, limited to twenty pieces each, that constitute the Tradition of Excellence collection. Each one of these watches has pushed the watchmaking art to new frontiers, using cutting edge technology and creativity. The latest on the collection, Cabinet #5 features a Millenary case in Platinum , a linear read perpetual calendar and a brand new high performance escapement that requires no lubrication.

Audemars Piguet Classic Collection

From the elegance of an ultra flat watch, to the poetry of a minute repeater, from the ingenuity of a tourbillon to the sophistication of a perpetual calendar or even to the precision of a chronograph... all of these Audemars Piguet Classic Collection traced back to the names of two precursors of modern Haute Orlogerie and founders of one of the oldest and most prestigious watch brands in the world, these complications can be found in the lines Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet.

Audemars Piguet Sports Collection

By introducing in 1972 the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, first luxury sports watch in stainless steel, the manifattura forever shifted the parameters by which Haute Horlogerie is measured. Since then, the great history of this watch, combination of audacity, craftsmanship and experience, keeps going forward with new interpretations of the classic, using revolutionary new materials like carbon, titanium or alacrity and with the introduction of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Off Shore venturing into extreme sports. For it's 30th anniversary in 2002 the Royal Oak collection was augmented with the Royal Oak Offshore Concept, a watch that pushes the limit of innovation. In 2004, Audemars Piguet created the Lady Royal Oak, worthy companion of the legendary octagon.

Audemars Piguet History

Audemars Piguet long history dates back to 1875 when a then 23 year old Jules Audemars joined forces with a 21 year old Edward Piguet, also a trained watchmaker, both of them having learned their trade after finishing public school in their hometown of Le Brassus. At the time, Jules was fabricating complicated "ebouches" (blank watch movements, to be finished and fitted by a watch manufacturer) from a workshop he had set up at his parents farm, while Edward was working as a self employed "repasseur" (a master watchmaker who performs the final regulation on a watch). Thanks to orders pouring in from Geneva Audemars was forced to engage more watchmakers, one of whom was Edward Piguet, whom he knew from schooldays. Soon after, they decided to cease to work as suppliers to established firms and instead manufacture and market the complicated watches that were their mutual passion. Audemars, Piguet & Cie was thus born.

Almost from the beginning, Audemars was in charge of production and the technical side, while his partner Piguet focused on sales and management. This formula worked so well that it was maintained after the death of the founders: prime responsibility for technical matters lay with members of the Audemars family, while commercial affairs were in the hands of the Piguet family.

Audemars Piguet is the oldest watch manufacturer still owned by the founding family. A member of the Audemars or Piguet families has always sat at the board of directors since the company's birth in 1882 and, thus, directly contributed to the destiny of the company.

Audemars Piguet's watchmaking history timeline:

1899
A "Grande Complication" pocket-watch emerges from the Audemars Piguet work-shops. It is equipped with grand and small strike and minute repeater chiming on three gongs, with an alarm striking on independent gongs, perpetual calendar, deadbeat seconds, and chronograph with jumping seconds (fifth of a second indication,) and split-seconds hand.

1915
Audemars Piguet sets a world record that remains unmatched to this day, by creating the smallest five-minute repeater movement of all time.

1921
Audemars Piguet creates the first jumping-hour wristwatch driven by calibre HPVM10.

1946
Thanks to calibre 9'''ML which is a mere 1.64 mm thick, Audemars Piguet creates the world's smallest hand-wound movement for a wristwatch.

1955
Introduction of the first Audemars Piguet wristwatch equipped with a perpetual calendar mechanism (calibre VZSSQP): this time-piece displays the "regular" irregularity of the months, while taking account of the leap years.

1972
Audemars Piguet creates the Royal Oak (calibre 2121), the first high-end steel sports watch, instantly recognizable thanks to its guilloché dial, its octagonal bezel secured with eight hexagonal screws, and its integrated bracelet. The watch is designed by Gerald Genta.

1986
A new world first: Audemars Piguet makes the first ultra-thin self winding tourbillon wristwatch (calibre 2870). The tourbillon carriage is the smallest ever made.

1989
Audemars Piguet creates the Dual Time, the first wristwatch to display the time in a second time zone and yet driven by a single self winding movement (calibre 2229/2845).

1993
Audemars Piguet launches the Royal Oak Offshore, designed for extreme sports. It features rubber clad pushers and crown, a massive (for the time) 44mm case and its water resistant to a depth of 100m. The watch is an instant hit.

1994
Whereas this mechanism had thus far only been integrated within pocket- watches, Audemars Piguet fits it within a wristwatch and presents the first hand-wound movement with grand and small strike and quarter repeater sounding on two gongs (calibre 2868).

1995
The Manufacture adds a split-seconds chronograph to its Triple Complication launched in 1992, thus giving rise to the first "Grande Complication" self winding wristwatch (calibre 2885).

2000
Celebrating the 125th anniversary of the company founding, the Jules Audemars Dynamograph wristwatch (calibre 2891) "Chiming Grand Strike" is added to the Audemars Piguet Classic Collection. It is characterized by a new qualitative indication: that of the torque supplied by the mainspring.

2002
For its 30th anniversary, the Royal Oak treats itself to the Concept watch. Its aesthetics are resolutely futurists; the materials used for its case, titanium and 602 alacrite, stem from cutting-edge technological research; and its original movement (calibre 2896) reaches new peaks of sophistication.

2004
Launch of the fourth piece in the Tradition d'Excellence Collection. Limited to 20 pieces, this Royal Oak hand-wound tourbillon chronograph has a double ten-day power-reserve indication and a 30-minute counter. The watch is equipped with the 2893 calibre. The case back and the bracelet are made of platinum 950.

2005
Audemars Piguet presents the Edward Piguet Moss Agate Tourbillon. This tourbillon is the world's first watch to be equipped with a plate in moss agate, a natural semi-translucent mineral graced with a fine mottled pattern reminiscent of plant-life motifs.

Jules Audemars & Edward Piguet Audemars Piguet "Miniature Minute Repeater & Perpetual Calendar" Made for Cooke & Kelvey, London. Audemars Piguet Wristwatches with jumping hours - 1921. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak - 1972 14202ST.0.0944ST.01 1986 First self-winding ultra-thin tourbillon wristwatch - 1986. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Dual Time 26120ST.OO.1220ST.02 Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars "Chiming Grand Strike" Audemars Piguet Royal Oak "Concept" 25980AI.0.0003KE.01 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Tourbillon 25969PT.OO.1105PT.01 Audemars Piguet Edward Piguet Moss Agate Tourbillon