“To break the rules, you must first master them. ” You probably know the slogan of one of the largest Swiss watchmaking houses today: replica Audemars Piguet. Today, we look at the history of its most emblematic model, we have named the Royal Oak.
The Audemars Piguet house
This house celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2015 and was founded by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet. In December 1875, Jules-Louis Audemars decided to create a watchmaking workshop on the family farm after learning watchmaking skills from his father. In the small town of Brassus in the Joux Valley in Switzerland. The young man occupied the role of “ironer”, a very important task, because it is the individual who has the heavy responsibility of verifying, via a complete check of the mechanism and aesthetics, the cased watch before it does not leave the production workshops. Very quickly, orders poured in for the small workshop and one of his friends, Edward-Auguste Piguet, joined the adventure. Together they will form the watch manufacture “Audemars Piguet & Cie”.
The manufacture will specialize in precision watchmaking and complicated watches. As early as 1882, we observed watches stamped “Audemars Piguet” with perpetual calendars, minute repeaters and even chronographs. For more than a century, the brand will develop, encountering moments of glory and crisis, notably during the crash of 1929 but also in the 1970s in the face of the domination of Rolex and the heyday of Japanese quartz.
The birth of a legendary watch
Audemars Piguet will call on the genius of an iconic designer in the field of watchmaking, Gérald Genta, to create a watch which will become the spearhead of the Swiss brand in 1973. At that time, the brand produced replica watches in precious metals like gold and brought them to life with high-quality movements. However, the managers of the factory sensed the need for a break in order to shake up established codes by offering something innovative. This will be done by creating a watch that aims to be the perfect mix between elegance and sportiness, which can be worn for a weekend in the countryside as well as for a social dinner, while preserving an exceptional level of finish.
Taking inspiration from a diving helmet screwed onto a wetsuit, Gérald Genta designed one of the centerpieces of his career in a single night: the “Royal Oak”. The prototype was a thin, fairly large watch with a dial decorated with a completely new blue “tapestry” pattern. The design of the Royal Oak was the subject of two patents in 1973 and its rupture will take place in 3 points. The first is the fact of offering a watch made only of steel which would cost the price of several watches made of gold. On this model, the avant-garde curves are replaced by angles, moreover the bezel and the crown will be octagonal in shape. In order to justify the price of this steel watch, the finish of the watch is impeccable. The second break is linked to the very design of the “Royal Oak” which is characterized by a case on which an articulated bracelet is integrated which encloses a movement sealed by a gasket.
Finally, Genta’s genius is characterized by a daring departure, that of sublimating the technical elements by revealing the octagonal bezel directly attached to the case by a gasket and visible nuts, then a middle part directly attached to the bracelet.
