Swiss watchmakers Audemars Piguet have been creating timepieces since 1875.
The company has plenty of innovations on its resume, including developing the first skeleton watch in 1934 and manufacturing some of the thinnest watches around.
The firm’s latest challenge to convention is a collaboration with Swatch, known for creating playful, affordable watches.
The bold move is part of Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta’s drive to push the boundaries of an industry whose reputation is often hampered by entrenched assumptions.
She’s particularly passionate about breaking the narrative that watchmaking is a conservative, male-dominated art.
Historic watchmakers create pop art timepieces
Audemars Piguet and Swatch’s new Royal Pop collection “brings together creativity and audacity with haute horlogerie,” the companies write in a press release.
Inspired by Pop Art, the collaboration reinterprets the Royal Oak pocket watch, debuted by Audemars Piguet in 1972.
Purists will notice elements from the original Royal Oak are still present, including the “Petite Tapisserie” pattern, the octagonal bezel and eight hexagonal screws.
But beyond that, the design, available in eight variations, is disruptive: primary and pastel colours normally snubbed by the industry, polkadots reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein and exposed mechanical elements.
The pocket watch aims to be revolutionary in another way, too. It can be worn in multiple ways, including around the neck, in the pocket, as a bag charm or as an accessory.
This taps into trends favoured by younger generations, particularly the trend for whimsical, jewellery-inspired charms decorating purses.
“Why this collaboration? For the joy and boldness it represents,” says Resta. “Because audacity is often the starting point of innovation and new ideas. And because it invites a broader audience including the younger generations to experience mechanical watchmaking differently.”
Breaking an antiquated narrative
The new collection is a clear advancement of Resta’s desire to be part of new perspectives about the watchmaking world.
“It’s a very vibrant time for watchmaking, although it’s a tough moment for the broader industry, but we see lots of creativity,” she tells Euronews Culture.
“There is really the desire to continue pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible from a mechanical standpoint, but also from a decoration standpoint.”
Resta is pushing to end the belief that the luxury watchmaking sector is conservative, overtly male-dominated and tangled up in old-fashioned traditions.
“Women have been working in watchmaking for centuries… Wrist watches were invented for women and if you look at the data for 2030, 45% of women will be buying mechanical watches,” she says.
“We see women growing in the purchase of high-end complications. For me it’s important also to break the narrative that there are watches for men, watches for women.”