Audemars Piguet

Audemars Piguet's history of high complication watchmaking stretches back across their entire history, and they have completed some of the most complicated wrist and pocket watches ever made. The present example of this lineage is inaugural model of the highly exclusive Audemars Piguet Tradition d’Excellence “Cabinet” Collection, first unveiled in 1999. Combining a one-minute tourbillon, minute repeater, and split-seconds chronograph, the watch is the definitive Grande Complication as defined by the brand themselves and stands among the most ambitious wristwatches ever produced by the manufacture. Cased in platinum and issued in a strictly limited edition of 20 examples only, the model was never offered for individual retail sale. Instead, ownership was reserved exclusively by invitation to a highly select group of established Audemars Piguet collectors who committed to the entire Tradition d’Excellence series.

Conceived as a showcase of Audemars Piguet’s technical brilliance, the Tradition d’Excellence project was originally intended to comprise eight exceptional complicated examples. To date, only five references have ultimately been completed, each produced in platinum and each limited to 20 pieces. The collection was designed as a modern “cabinet of curiosities” in horological form, paying tribute to the maison’s founders, Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet, while simultaneously showcasing their uncompromising approach to traditional watchmaking.

For Audemars Piguet, the designation “Grande Complication” is reserved for watches combining at least three of the most revered complications. The present reference unites three of these most technically demanding: a minute repeater, a one-minute tourbillon, and a split-seconds chronograph. Belonging to the first series of the collection, it is housed in the elegant and classically proportioned Jules Audemars round case. Within beats the calibre 2876, featuring a two-hammer minute repeater, its one-minute tourbillon displayed through the dial aperture, and a split-seconds chronograph.

Aesthetically restrained and mechanically extraordinary, the watch is widely regarded as one of the defining complicated wristwatches of modern Audemars Piguet production, it represents not only a landmark achievement in contemporary watchmaking, but also one of the ultimate prizes and showpiece for the brands collector community.

These are the five watches comprising the Tradition d’Excellence “Cabinet” Collection that were completed:

1. Tourbillon Minute Repeater with Split-Seconds Chronograph, Jules Audemars case – the present watch
2. Minute Repeater with Perpetual Calendar, Jules Audemars case
3. Tourbillon Chronograph with Power Reserve, Edward Piguet rectangular case
4. Royal Oak Tourbillon Chronograph, 44 mm case
5. Linear Perpetual Calendar with Deadbeat Seconds and Revolutionary Escapement, Millenary case

Adding further significance to the present example, the watch is accompanied by its extraordinarily rare original presentation “cabinet,” a feature seldom, if ever, encountered at public auction. Constructed from wood and elevated on four elongated legs, the cabinet is adorned with intricate marquetry decoration and was originally conceived to house the complete eight-watch Tradition d’Excellence series, with individual drawers allocated for each timepiece.