At Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026, Audemars Piguet steps into a new chapter, one that feels less like a presentation and more like an opening. Not of doors, but of process, collaboration, and the often unseen world behind fine watchmaking.
Marking its debut at the fair, the Manufacture transforms its presence into something immersive and outward-facing, introducing the Atelier des Établisseurs: a concept rooted in history, but shaped for a new generation of collectors and observers.
A House of Wonders
At the centre of the experience is the “House of Wonders,” a multi-room exhibition designed to move visitors through the layered reality of watchmaking. Heritage pieces sit alongside contemporary innovations, collapsing time into a single, fluid narrative.
It’s not simply about display. Artisans are present, working, explaining, and revealing the human touch behind each component. The result feels less like a museum and more like a living system, one where tradition and technology continuously inform each other.
The final space introduces the Atelier des Établisseurs itself, a project that revisits the Vallée de Joux’s historic établissage system—where independent artisans once produced individual components, later assembled into singular timepieces. Here, that model returns, reframed through contemporary design and collaboration.
At its core, the Atelier des Établisseurs is about authorship, who makes a watch, and how that story is told. Each piece is assembled, adjusted, and finished by a watchmaker, echoing the original principles of établissage while embracing contemporary craft.
The approach is deliberately slow. It values irregularity, material variation, and the subtle differences that make each watch unrepeatable. Jewellery-making, engraving, enamelling, and stone-cutting are not supporting acts here; they are central to the identity of each creation.
The result is a series of watches that feel less industrial, more intimate—objects shaped as much by hands as by design.
Alongside this, the brand premieres a new chapter of Inside the Dream, a documentary that traces the creation of a Royal Oak innovation from concept to completion. It’s a rare look at the convergence of disciplines—designers, engineers, and artisans working in quiet alignment.
Opening the Process
Beyond the exhibition, Audemars Piguet expands its presence into the city. An AP Lab at the Pont de la Machine invites visitors into a more tactile understanding of watchmaking, using interactive experiences to break down complexity into something intuitive and engaging.
Taken together, these moments signal a shift. Watchmaking is no longer held at a distance; it is opened, explained, and shared.
Three Expressions of Craft
Établisseurs Galets draws directly from the natural landscape of the Vallée de Joux. Its smooth, pebble-like forms echo stones shaped by water, with an oval dial in natural stone and a bracelet composed of individually shaped links. These elements move fluidly, connected by discreet gold joints, creating a sense of motion even at rest. Powered by a calibre derived from the brand’s first in-house movement, the watch merges jewellery, horology, and lapidary craftsmanship into a single, cohesive piece.
Établisseurs Nomade takes a more architectural approach. Designed to shift between object and instrument, it can be carried, worn, or placed as a desk clock. Its structure combines facetted metal with precisely cut stone, while the skeletonised movement, crafted by hand using traditional tools, introduces transparency and symmetry. Here, time is not simply read; it is observed through the movement itself, where bridges double as markers.
Établisseurs Peacock moves into something more expressive. Closed, it resembles a sculptural object in white gold. Opened, it reveals a hidden dial framed by a hand-crafted peacock, its enamelled tail unfolding across the surface. The movement beneath continues the dialogue between mechanics and decoration, with hand-finished details that elevate the watch into something closer to a miniature artwork.
These first creations from the Atelier des Établisseurs do more than showcase technical skill. They reassert the value of collaboration—between disciplines, between generations, and between past and present.
At Watches and Wonders 2026, the message is clear: the future of watchmaking lies not only in innovation, but in the preservation and reinvention of the crafts that built it.
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