Audemars Piguet Has Launched Its First Jewellery Collection
Audemars Piguet has launched its first jewellery collection, unveiling 19 pieces during Paris Fashion Week. For a house whose name is so closely associated with what sits on your wrist, necklaces, chokers and earrings are a significant arrival—and the debut is every bit as ambitious as its watches.
Called Royal Oak Joaillerie, the collection takes its starting point from the Swiss watchmaker’s most recognisable design. There are diamonds, emeralds and pink sapphires, with prices reported from £43,000.
Inside Audemars Piguet’s first jewellery collection
The angular shapes and carefully finished surfaces of the Royal Oak run through the designs. Enlarged and reworked as jewellery, they give the collection a recognisable family resemblance, while coloured stones introduce a different mood.
Some of the most striking combinations appear in Risoud Eclipse. Black titanium sets off green emeralds and diamonds, inspired by the Risoud Forest beneath an eclipse. The dark metal makes the colour particularly vivid; it is a dramatic choice for a house entering a new category.
Dream of Joux looks to a broader sweep of the Swiss Vallée de Joux, where Audemars Piguet is based. Frozen lakes, flowers and night skies inform gemstone bracelets, necklaces and earrings. The landscape supplies both the colour and the atmosphere, tying these elaborate pieces to the place where the house makes its watches.
A debut built on an existing craft
Jewellery is a new standalone collection for Audemars Piguet, although the skills behind it have long been part of the manufacture. Gem-setting and decorative metalwork are already central to its high-jewellery watches. That experience now has room to develop without a dial or movement determining the design.
Chief executive Ilaria Resta has described a project that grew out of conversations with a small group of Asian clients. The inaugural collection was already sold ahead of its public launch, according to her interview with Luxury Tribune. Production is deliberately limited, with the focus on developing the house’s craftsmanship.
That makes this debut especially interesting to watch. Audemars Piguet is beginning with the clients, materials and techniques it knows intimately, then giving them a new form. The result is a collection with enough scale and colour to command attention well beyond the watch world.
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