La Petite Seconde Jules Audemars

JULES AUDEMARS SMALL SECONDS

In 2011, Audemars Piguet has entirely reviewed the fundamentals of the Jules Audemars collection, including moon-phase calendar, dual timezone and selfwinding models. In doing so, the Manufacture has not forgotten women – quite the contrary! It is indeed to them it dedicates the Jules Audemars Small Seconds watch in pink or white gold with a diamond-set or polished bezel. The round case, sleek bezel and beautifully understated dial conceal a finely crafted hand-wound Audemars Piguet movement. The Jules Audemars Small Seconds watch shuns extravagance or overstatement, instead expressing a return to a certain form of minimalism along with a femininity verging on the masculine and thus exalting its graceful delicacy. It thereby reasserts the seductive power of true classics.

A region, a culture: a collection

The models in the Jules Audemars collection represent the very roots of Audemars Piguet. This collection tells the story of an exceptional place and some exceptional people. The place is the Vallée de Joux, and the people are those who have nurtured Fine Watchmaking in this remote region. Well before the timepieces from this valley were exported to the four corners of the world, everything was already in place. From the mid-18th century onwards, alongside the farming work they undertook during the summer, the local population devoted many hours to building watch movements. They spent their long harsh winters at the workbench in order to fulfil orders from Geneva-based companies. They later began making their own movements and entire watches. The boldest of them founded manufactories, or Manufactures as they became known.

The men of the Vallée had thus acquired the ability to conduct the entire process, from design through to production, using hand-craftsmanship techniques. This dexterity, this manual know-how was handed down from generation to generation. Today it is accompanied by technological progress and semi-industrial-scale production, and yet the watches nonetheless embody deeply rooted origins and culture.

Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet became officially associated in 1875 and created the Manufacture Audemars Piguet. Both were watchmakers and accomplished masters of their chosen profession that they cherished and constantly perfected. Building on their knowledge, they played a pioneering role and took up the challenge of making entire watches under one roof. The company they established has been active ever since and has remained in the hands of the founding families.

The Jules Audemars collection pays tribute to this firm by bearing the name of one of the founders. It recounts this legacy and is imbued with a profound awareness of its heritage yet without any sense of nostalgia. It reinterprets the past with a contemporary vision. Its quest is focused on simplicity and a refusal of anything superfluous or purely ornamental. This unaffected simplicity is indeed what makes it both naturally elegant and unmistakably modern.

The strength of great classics

The spirit of the Jules Audemars collection is perfectly suited to certain for women who don’t necessarily like to wear their jewellery in an ostentatiously glamorous manner, for those who prefer a more intimate and authentic expression of natural class. These women often radiate a subtly distinctive aura of natural elegance. With the Jules Audemars Small Seconds, the Jules Audemars collection offers them an area of purity and tranquillity, like an untouched snowy plain, like an immaculate china-blue sky.

By opting for an extremely slender bezel, the Jules Audemars Small Seconds watch reveals the nobility of the round case, making the latter appear light and almost ethereal. The slim shape of the bezel also enables a maximum dial opening. Against this extremely pure, delicately satin-brushed background, the applied pink gold hands and baton-shaped hourmarkers stand out with natural distinction. The applied pink gold baton-shaped hour-markers and hands stand out against the decidedly understated silver-toned background. The crisp, cool clarity of this formal purity is unperturbed by any minute circle, with only a discreet small seconds subdial appearing at 6 o’clock.

While the design of this timepiece is clearly governed by specific aesthetic options, the same goes for the movement. The Jules Audemars Small Seconds watch is equipped with handwound proprietary Audemars Piguet Calibre 3090, entirely developed, assembled and decorated in the workshops of Le Brassus. Women no longer choose their watch exclusively for its visible beauty, they also appreciate the sophistication of a mechanical movement. The heart of the movement is a variable-inertia balance fitted with eight inertia-blocks that enhance its long-term rating stability. Equipped with a flat balance-spring, it beats at a cadence of 21,600 vibrations per hour. Its cross-through balance bridge ensures improved shock resistance in that it is fixed on not just one side, but on either side of the mainplate.

But the crowning glory of Calibre 3090 is doubtless the extreme care lavished on crafting it. Manually assembled in the company workshops in Le Brassus, it is distinguished by the exceptional quality of its execution and finishing. The bridges are meticulously bevelled and polished so as to feature only cleanly-cut, gleaming edges. The jewel sinks are diamondpolished.

The wheels have bevelled spokes and diamond-polished sinks. Even the screw rim and slots are bevelled. The mainplate is circular-grained on both sides and the bridges are adorned with Côtes de Genève. Women who appreciate rare objects will marvel at this meticulous finishing work in admiring the movement through the sapphire crystal case-back. They will rediscover the pleasure of the infinitely small details that one keeps to oneself. And finally, in the Jules Audemars Small seconds watch, they will recognise the force of character capable of withstanding the changes of time and which represents the enduring strength of authentic great classics.