Uncover the historical past behind the brand new Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Starwheel watch

Historic timekeeping traditions are rethought by Audemars Piguet, which integrates a Seventeenth-century complication into the brand new Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Starwheel watch. The wandering hours complication, by displaying the hours utilizing satellites that seem to float alongside a minute scale, imbues the traditional time-telling technique with a sublime romanticism.

‘The Code 11:59 by Audemars Piguet Starwheel is a superb instance of the magic mix of previous and future, simplicity and complexity,’ says Sébastian Vivas, heritage and museum director at Audemars Piguet. ‘The three black discs appear to rotate like satellites over an evening sky of aventurine. Their domed form completely matches the complicated curves of the bezel and the glass. The black ceramic center combining edges and curves echoes the three discs. Personally, I take into account this new instance of Code 11:59 as top-of-the-line achieved when it comes to language type, and expression of the delicate and poetic strategy to specific the time.’

Code 11:59 by Audemars Piguet Starwheel watch

The watch nods to the evening clocks invented within the 1650s by Pier Tommaso Campani, following a request from pope Alexander VII. The clock, which encompassed an oil lamp and hours and quarters minimize right into a brass plate, was readable at nighttime. Over the centuries, this technicality advanced into the wandering hours mechanism, which later nonetheless developed into the leaping hours complication.

In September 1989, Audemars Piguet grew to become fascinated with this historical past, launching the primary Starwheel mannequin 18 months later. ‘This was the proper timing: after the quartz disaster, all horizons have been open,’ Vivas provides. ‘For the primary time in historical past, the wandering hours mechanism was completely seen. This small complication outfitted a number of fashions of the model, together with spherical watches, Millenary, John Schaeffer and pocket watches, and it quickly impressed different manufacturers. Initially of the twenty first century, Audemars Piguet determined to focus its creativity on different collections, such because the Royal Oak Offshore and on different small problems such because the time zones.’

The Starwheel, which had amassed a loyal following, was introduced again by fashionable request after the launch of the Code 11:59 assortment in 2019, which included sketches of a starwheel satellite tv for pc show, and obtained a heat response. ’The timing is ideal, because the Starwheel suits completely with the brand new spherical line of the model,’ Vivas says. ‘On the finish of the Royal Oak fiftieth anniversary celebrations, it opens new horizons, which is able to develop throughout 2023.’