The Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is pleased to present its new temporary exhibition entitled Simply Complicated. Celebrating the launch of the new Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4, this exhibition traces the human adventure behind the project and the many challenges that marked the seven years it took to create the most complicated wristwatch ever made by Audemars Piguet.
The exhibition also revisits L’Universelle, the 1899 pocket watch that inspired this project with its ancestral know-how, human talent and cutting-edge technology.
Alongside the permanent collection of the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, this new temporary exhibition, entitled Simply Complicated, offers a playful look at the technical and creative development of the new Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4, allowing visitors to delve into the extraordinary human adventure that gave life to this timepiece with its high complications and supreme ergonomics.
Capitalising on the Manufacture’s historical mastery of watch complications and three generations of R&D innovations, the RD#4 model was born from the Audemars Piguet team’s desire to create a mechanical wristwatch that would be both highly complicated and simple to use. Designers, constructors, watchmakers and craftsmen worked together to explore new horizons, combining their respective expertise to push the limits of watchmaking art.
The result of their efforts is the Calibre 1000, a selfwinding movement with over 1,100 components, 40 functions and 23 complications, which include a Grande Sonnerie, Supersonnerie, a perpetual calendar, a split-second chronograph and a flying tourbillon. Named after the 1899 L’Universelle pocket watch, which sits in the centre of the Musée Atelier, this ultra-complicated contemporary selfwinding wristwatch opens up new creative dimensions for Haute Horlogerie.
The exhibition allows visitors to discover this human adventure in images through the testimonies of numerous artisans from the Manufacture. The visit begins with a Universal Machine, a complicated structure designed by artist Pascal Bettex. The machine has sounds, movement and lights which draw visitors into the magic of the mechanism. In the next room, visitors can delve into the holy grail of complications with 11 glass walls representing the 11 layers of the Calibre 1000 movement on which the components are projected. Finally, a space devoted to ergonomics allows visitors to discover the level of complexity achieved and the many challenges met by the Audemars Piguet teams via models, reproductions and didactic animations.
Simply Complicated can be discovered in the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet from January 2023 until the end of 2024.
