New Manufacture De Haute Horlogerie Audemars Piguet Le Locle, Switzerland

Like the luxury watches it creates, the new Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie Audemars Piguet is an incredibly impressive piece of precision engineering. Constructed with a low profile hugging the contours of the hill on which it stands, the building integrates discreetly into the rolling landscape of the Swiss Jura. Every stage of fine watch creation takes place here, from research and development to machining, decoration, assembly and administration.

In the centre of the complex, a large meeting space known as the Piazza by its users, invites interaction, and has been designed as a forum for informal contact, workshops and co-creation sessions. Customers and partners are welcomed to the new facility with a journey designed to give them an immersive experience that begins with the geography of the Jura region, and progresses to a presentation of the company’s exacting standards, before ending in the workshops to discover the precision engineering techniques of the fine watchmaker.

Technical Sheet

• Architect: Kunik de Morsier

• Developer: Audemars Piguet

1875

That was the year in which Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet founded their business.

Audemars Piguet now employs more than 1,500 people worldwide.

The use of natural daylight throughout the Manufacture was researched and designed in conjunction with Marilyne Andersen, Professor of Sustainable Construction Technologies and Head of the Laboratory of Integrated Performance Design at EPFL in Lausanne. Her research focuses on the psycho-physiological effects of natural light on building occupants.