ByNatalie White

Design, photography, sound and film come together for a stellar Royal Oak 40th Anniversary worldwide exhibition. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Audemars Piguet’s iconic Royal Oak, the world’s first ever luxury sports timepiece which sparked a complete paradigm shift in the watch industry, the Swiss Manufacture from Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux has put together a unique, ephemeral exhibition.

Launched in New York in March, the exhibition has traveled to Milan, Paris, and will be moving to Beijing in August before having its final stop in Singapore for a 5 days only visit from 10 to 14 October 2012 at the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.

Gazetted as a national monument in 2011 after close to eight decades of service, the railway station is an architecturally significant landmark with much historical grandeur. Kept in its original richly ornamented Art Deco style, the station’s white marble façade and its beautiful rustic paintings overhanging the interior halls make the building an ideal venue to house the Royal Oak 40th Anniversary Exhibition.

The Manufacture has curated, for the very first time, an exhibition of 100 exceptional timepieces from the Royal Oak Collection set against the backdrop of a stage that underscores Audemars Piguet’s origins, mastery and artistry. These rare watches, from the very first Royal Oak in 1972 to the latest models unveiled at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, Geneva in January this year, have been revealed in a series of exhibitions showcasing the brand as a beacon of innovation and creativity.

In 1972, Audemars Piguet broke all rules of fine watchmaking when designer Gerald Genta, together with Georges Golay, worked on an unprecedented steel watch and introduced the groundbreaking design of the Royal Oak, the first luxury sports watch in Haute Horlogerie. Genta worked on this truly revolutionary design in a span of one night.

No one could have predicted anything whatsoever regarding its legendary destiny when it was launched.

Forty years on, the four distinctive characteristics that defined this timepiece in the luxury watch industry are even more than ever recognizable – the octagonal bezel fixed with the hexagonal screws, one of the thinnest selfwinding movements, the seamless integration of the bracelet to the case, and the tapisserie pattern on the dial.

This exhibition captures and illustrates how the Royal Oak evolves into the icon it is today, by reinterpreting the origins and modernity of Audemars Piguet through the innovative and contemporary perspective of three unequivocally 21st Century artists – Sebastien Leon Agneessens, Quayola and Dan Holdsworth – who collectively, through the exhibition installation, photography, sound and film, create an ambience that immerses every visitor deep in the Vallée de Joux, the birth place of Haute Horlogerie in Switzerland, illustrating its story like never before.

The overall design of the exhibition was inspired by the origins of the brand in Le Brassus. Apart from 100 iconic timepieces and invaluable memorabilia dating back to the beginning of the 70s, the exhibition will also feature a working guillochage machine with a highly skilled watchmaker, a watchmaker working on two Royal Oak movements, a magnifying video camera linked to a video monitor embedded in the counter, as well as four exploded views of the watches.

Visitors will be treated to a whole new level of interactive experience as they witness the beating heart of the skilled craftsmanship in assembling Audemars Piguet’s finest movements.

Exclusively only to Singapore and Beijing, the newly launched limited edition Royal Oak Leo Messi Chronograph Case No. 10 in platinum and tantalum, will be displayed for the first time. This exclusive piece will be auctioned off at the end of the exhibition run, with proceeds going to the Leo Messi Foundation. Other highlights include the Royal Oak Grande Complication which was specially created in 1998 for the founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté and the Royal Oak Concept as an avant- garde tribute to the Royal Oak’s 30 years of watchmaking revolution.

The year-long celebration of the Royal Oak’s regal forty years will be culminating in Singapore as its final stop in October.

Held at the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, the exhibition will be opened to public with free admission.