Jules Audemars Automatique

JULES AUDEMARS SELFWINDING

In 2011, Audemars Piguet has entirely reviewed the fundamentals of the Jules Audemars collection, its moon-phase calendar and dual timezone models, as well as its simple selfwinding watches including those with a date display. The Jules Audemars selfwinding watch comes in three different interpretations: pink gold with silver-toned or black dial, and white gold with a silver-toned dial. Each may be adorned with a diamond-set bezel to create three additional versions. All feature a round case, a streamlined bezel and an understated dial. All display a discreetly self-effacing air that serves to highlight their sleek, slender lines. They arouse authentic emotion of the kind surrounding objects that are built to last. In a nutshell, the Jules Audemars selfwinding watch is endowed with that special something that is in fact the natural elegance of authentic 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. It is this unaffected simplicity that makes it both naturally elegant and unmistakably modern.

The strength of true classics

The round case is an archetype that tends to make us forget that the circle is the ultimate perfect shape. By opting for an extremely slender bezel, the Jules Audemars selfwinding 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 batonshaped hour-markers stand out with natural distinction, along with the date window.

While the pure design of this timepiece is clearly governed by specific aesthetic options, the same goes for the movement. The Jules Audemars selfwinding watch is equipped with what is undoubtedly Audemars Piguet’s ultimate proprietary selfwinding movement: Calibre 3120. It is constantly fine-tuned and distinguished by excellent reliability. To guarantee its precision, 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. A direct-drive seconds hand avoids any jerking of the hand.

Calibre 3120 also ensures appreciable user friendliness, particularly due to the instant date jump, to the fast adjustment and the 60-hour power reserve. Setting the time is particularly easy in that pulling out the crown activates the stop seconds lever and thereby brings the seconds hand to an immediate halt.

But the crowning glory of Calibre 3120 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. As far as the entirely hand-crafted decoration is concerned, the mainplate is circular-grained on both sides and the bridges are adorned with Côtes de Genève. The 22-carat gold monobloc oscillating weight is adorned with the Audemars and Piguet family crests and the AP monogram.

Those 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 selfwinding 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.