Swiss Haute Horlogerie manufacturer Audemars Piguet takes part in the 5th edition of the Dubai Watch Week taking place from 24 to 28 November 2021 at the gate of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Audemars Piguet’s space will host a large-scale exhibition, Beyond the Limits: A Journey through Time, Design and Materials, which will bring visitors at the heart of the Manufacture’s endless quest for innovation.
For more than 145 years, Audemars Piguet watchmakers, engineers and artisans have pushed the boundaries of their craft and experimented with proportions, materials and forms to create avant-garde mechanical timepieces standing the test of time. At the heart of the exhibition lies the Royal Oak Offshore – a muscular sports watch which has been one of the brand’s main platforms for creative experimentation. Launched in 1993, this pioneering watch has defied established conventions and set the trend of large-sized watches adapted to extreme sports and lifestyles. Taking ever-more creative dimensions with a wide array of unyielding materials, sizes and colours, the Royal Oak Offshore embodies Audemars Piguet’s rule-breaking and free-spirited attitude.
The exhibition contextualises the development of the Royal Oak Offshore in the Manufacture’s research in material innovation which accelerated in the 1980s thanks to new technological and horological advancements. Finding inspiration in fields as diverse as aeronautics, aerospace and the automotive industry, Audemars Piguet explored new territories of expression and started experimenting with high-tech materials such as ceramic and titanium – a taste for innovation that has permeated to this day.
Divided into two rooms, the exhibition will display a selection of heritage and contemporary timepieces, including emblematic Royal Oak Offshore models. In addition, visitors will have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of materials, such as ceramic and gold, to better understand their physical properties and their unique transformative journey into high-end ergonomic watch designs. Audemars Piguet will also take part in the Dubai Watch Week hands-on workshop programme, with two masterclasses led by one of the Manufacture’s expert watchmakers.
