Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Tourbillon Minute Repeater Chronograph watch

The Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Tourbillon Minute Repeater Chronograph watch is a superb example of haute horlogerie at its summit, both technically and aesthetically. By combining a hand-wound column-wheel controlled chronograph with two of the most difficult complications in watchmaking, Audemars Piguet has created a stunningly beautiful luxury timepiece for the most discriminating of collectors and aficionados.

The tourbillon and the minute repeater have long represented the very essence of brilliant watchmaking. The former, invented at the turn of the 19th century, is an ingenious and technically elaborate device which sought to greatly reduce the effects of gravity upon the vertically oriented escapement of pocket watches; meanwhile, the minute repeater utilizes an extremely intricate mechanism which is able to translate the position of the hands into a series of coordinated and perfectly tuned chimes that indicate the hours, quarter hours, and individual minutes, at any time that the slide lever is activated. In a time preceding electric light or illuminated watch displays, the minute repeater enabled a gentleman to discreetly tell the time by sound alone; although an earlier invention than the tourbillon, the minute repeater also reached its technical zenith during the 19th century.

Audemars Piguet has long had their hand in the development of these remarkable complications, being a specialist in the finest watchmaking techniques since the company's earliest beginnings in 1875. The stunning Jules Audemars Tourbillon Minute Repeater Chronograph watch pays respect to Jules-Louis Audemars who co-founded the company. Each of these limited production timepieces is crafted exclusively from 18K gold or platinum, in a massive 43mm case which displays finely brushed surfaces and elegant polished contrasts atop the bezel, and caselugs.

The stunning dials of the Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Tourbillon Minute Repeater Chronograph watch, display an intricate guilloche pattern which radiates in a fan-like pattern from the center of the dial, and is set off by elegant Roman numerals and leaf hands, all crafted from solid gold, and finely hand polished. The aperture at six o'clock shows the tourbillon cage, mounted on a polished steel bridge; its freely sprung balance features weighted screws, and beats at a pace of 21,600 vibrations per hour; each minute, the tourbillon cage completes a single revolution. Turning this exquisite Audemars Piguet timepiece on its backside reveals a movement that is in full accord with the highest degree of haute de gamme craftsmanship. All bridges are decorated with hand-applied Cotes de Geneve patterns, while the individual steel components display edges which have been meticulously chamfered and polished. Screw and jewel settings are countersunk, and each of these are also carefully polished.

By operating the chronograph mechanism, the exceptional refinement of this exclusive and extremely complex Audemars Piguet movement can be easily felt; at the same time its functions will fascinate lovers of mechanical watchmaking, as the precise advances of the column-wheel can be clearly admired. Equally captivating, are the hammers of the minute repeater which can be seen striking the gongs whenever the minute repeater is activated. Due to its technical intricacy, and the consequent demands it places upon the master watchmakers capable of building it, only a handful of these Audemars Piguet watches will leave the workshop in Le Brassus, Switzerland each year. Each Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Tourbillon Minute Repeater chronograph watch is completed by a fine hand-sewn and remborded crocodile strap equipped with a folding clasp in gold or platinum, elegantly shaped like the Audemars Piguet initials.