Thought this was a great writeup and wanted to share, thx to the Revo Mag people for the writeup.

Jack Forster
Live from Le Brassus and Sunning in the Med with Elizabeth Doerr
September 10, 2010 07:26AM

"Hi everyone! Last week a very select group of journalists were fortunate enough to be able to visit the headquarters of Audemars Piguet in Le Brassus, and also to experience one of Audemars Piguet's most important associations: the alliance with the Hydroptere, the world's fastest sailing boat! While I was not able to attend for personal reasons, I am very pleased to say that my frequent traveling companion, comrade-in-arms, and Revolution Magazine contributor Elizabeth Doerr was on hand to bring us this terrific report.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, Elizabeth Doerr . . .

Audemars Piguet is one of the most venerable manufactures in the Swiss watchmaking landscape. Last week, I had the extreme pleasure of being able to visit its many facilities, topped off by spending a day in St. Tropez with AP’s latest greatest sponsorship association: the world’s fastest sailing boat, the Hydroptère. By clicking here for a video by AP you can view the boat in action when the wind is strong. Unfortunately, the beautiful Mediterranean didn’t have such strong wind, but the experience was still a very wonderful one.



This building located in Le Brassus, the biggest town in the Vallée de Joux, is the original AP workshop. Today it houses the museum. If you have never been in the AP museum, rest assured it is a real treat: lovingly put together, it houses not only AP’s own historical timepieces but some other rarities originating in the Vallée de Joux.



However, we began our day in the annexed building next door, which houses the restoration workshop and service center. As with the museum, AP will service rare treasures originating in the Vallée de Joux but not necessarily associated with the AP brand itself. This perpetual calendar was from the U.S. market.



More treasure….



AP has scanned its entire master registry, which was begun in 1875, so that it could be computerized. New entries are made both by hand and on the computer.



All kinds of old parts and tools are still kept here, allowing the six restoration watchmakers to learn from them.



Walking next door to the museum, we find much more treasure. Unfortunately my camera was not quite good enough to capture the timepieces under their interesting lighting. Here, however, we have 1991’s automatic tourbillon with date and power reserve.



After lunch and just a short walk away, we went to the new facility. Just about a total of 500 people combined work in AP’s Le Brassus buildings.



The department in charge of making the forged carbon cases is located in this state-of-the-art building.



Here we see spools holding the carbon strands.



One fiber of carbon, which contains thousands of threads.



A still shot showing how easy it is to cut the fibers.



The pieces are cut into this size.



The cut pieces are put into a container this size, which is exactly the amount needed to make one case.



The pieces are put into this mold and pressed.



Then they are baked in this oven at 240°C.



They are removed from the oven when the mold reaches the temperature of 240°C. This machine cools the mold down to 40°C, and pressure is once again added here.



The entire process for making one forged carbon case is about 20 minutes from beginning to end. About 20 percent of the cases need to be thrown away in the end as they can develop air pockets, thus making them below standard.



From there we wandered into a room that provided us a rare sight. During the boom years, AP began making some of its own dials to be less dependent upon suppliers. This pantograph automatically carves out the “tapisserie” pattern so typical of AP on brass dials.



It is like guilloché except that it is not hand-driven. It is an automated process that uses a tracing technique to achieve the pattern.



AP manufactures about 1,000 of these dials each year. All the rest of the company’s dials are supplied.



The next day we drove to APRP, better known as Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi. This facility, 78 percent of which is owned by AP outright, is where some of the industry’s most creative and complicated watchmaking takes place.



An added surprise! APRP was in the midst of assembling Harry Winston’s Opus 3 when we toured.



Five watchmakers assemble the 55-piece limited edition, which may well have the distinction of being the industry’s most anticipated watch ever. It was first introduced 7 years ago, at Baselworld 2003.



Naturally, the lion’s share of work done here is done in the name of AP.



The next morning we flew to St. Tropez. We were picked up just a few meters from the Nice airport by a luxurious yacht to take us out to the Hydroptère. The new Royal Oak Offshore Diver was our companion for the day, and several of us got to wear it on the Hydroptère.



The Hydroptère looked glorious in the Mediterranean sunshine.



It was finally my turn to wear the diver for a while. I actually got to keep it on throughout the rest of the afternoon and into dinner.



Jon Bues of IW takes a break to enjoy the nets spanning the area between the trimaran’s hull. The sensation of the water rushing directly underneath is an unforgettable one.



Just the right watch for sailing on the world’s most high-tech sailing boat.



Anne-Cecile Theveny, AP marketing USA, gets instruction on how to steer the craft from skipper Alain Thébault.



Two beauties.



Alain Thébault looks up the mast while Paul Lerner (AP PR for USA) and I look out into the beautiful distance. Note the diver on my left wrist…

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to AP USA as well as AP headquarters for making this extraordinary trip possible. I would like to personally thank Paul Lerner, Anne-Cecile Theveny, Juliane Gauthier, Philippe Merk and the wonderful team behind these gorgeous watches for being such terrific hosts and going above and beyond the norm to ensure a great time was had by all. Thank you also to AP for providing a few of these pictures, which I hope illustrated the technical aspects better than I would have been able to."

 

very very cool writeup...thanks for sharing

 

damn, thats amazing...

 

Wow that's awesome. Would have been a great experience. It's interesting to learn how they make they make the CF case, I didn't know they were strands like that.

 

How were you able to attend such an event?

Great post thank you!

 

The craftsmanship and old world heritage in AP watches is incredible. I would never spend the coin that their watches command mainly bc I wont have deep pockets like y'all, and if I did I would go the PP route, but I respect the brand.

 

Thanks for sharing! The watch making process is remarkable to say the least, very cool!