Audemars Piguet, Luxury watch manufacturer in Le Brassus, Switzerland.
Audemars Piguet is a watchmaking company in Le Brassus specializing in mechanical wristwatches of the highest craft quality, operating both a manufacture and a museum. The buildings in the village include production facilities where specialists assemble and adjust the movement mechanisms, cases, and dials by hand.
Two watchmakers founded the company in 1875 in the Vallée de Joux, a region with a long watchmaking tradition in the Swiss Alps. The workshop remained family-owned through the decades, gradually expanding production capacity and technical capabilities.
Visitors see workshop spaces with glass fronts where watchmakers sit at benches, continuing a local craft that has shaped families in the Vallée de Joux for generations. The exhibition rooms display microscopically fine components and the precise tools craftsmen use to assemble the mechanical parts.
The museum building opens its doors regularly, but it is advisable to book in advance as space is limited and guided tours run in small groups only. Visitors should plan enough time to look closely at the display cases and the crafted details.
The manufacture developed a tiny striking mechanism complication in the late 19th century that fit inside a wristwatch case and announced the time acoustically. This innovation allowed reading the time in darkness, long before luminous materials on hands became common.
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