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Style Edit: Audemars Piguet launches a new atelier at Watches and Wonders 2026
STORYSCMP Style Reporter
At the annual Geneva event, the maison announced the Atelier des Établisseurs to preserve traditional watchmaking skills, and also released 3 distinctive new models
For centuries, the remarkable creations of Switzerland’s fine horology houses have relied on the rare artisanal skills of numerous craftspeople dotted throughout the nation’s villages and valleys. In an era of increasing automation, those skills, passed directly from individual to individual since time immemorial, are in danger of being lost.
But not if Audemars Piguet has anything to do with it. The Swiss luxury watchmaker, fresh from launching new novelty models in March, is taking action to preserve traditional skills with an inspiring new initiative, Atelier des Établisseurs, launched at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026. It draws its inspiration from the établissage system, which dates back to the 18th century. That saw the farmers of the Vallée de Joux in the Jura Mountains retreat indoors during the valley’s notorious winters to each work on a single watch component, which were then put together by a company known as an établisseur. In fact, it was a role that Audemars Piguet itself once played.
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