Brutalist Manifesto: The Audemars Piguet [RE]Master02
So much for an “incremental year.”
For all that the buzz post-Watches & Wonders was that this was going to be a quiet, even an “incremental” year in which the market adjusted to new economic realities and brands would do whatever the luxury watchmaking equivalent is of laying low, it turns out that the year has had more surprises for us than anyone expected. While there were a few insiders who knew about the next installment in the Audemars Piguet [RE]Master series, most of us I think it is safe to say were completely in the dark. [Re]Master01 was a while ago, as product releases are measured in fine watchmaking; it has been four years since AP launched [RE]Master01, which was released in March of 2020. The idea behind the [RE]Master line was to take forgotten classics from AP’s archives and reinterpret them with modern materials and movements, while creating high fidelity takes on the originals. The [RE]Master01 was a 40mm x 14.6mm flyback chronograph version of the 36.5mm ref. 1533, from the 1940s and while it generated a lot of excitement at launch, it’s been long enough that a lot of us were beginning to wonder if AP had decided to no longer pursue the [RE]Master concept. The [RE]Master02 was not only a pleasant surprise, it was an exhilarating reminder of just how deep AP’s history really is – when I saw the first images, I said “wow” out loud.
The [RE]Master02 is a version of an asymmetrical watch produced by AP in very small numbers, in 1961. That watch, the reference 5159, of which seven were made, was relatively small at 27.5mm; the new version is thoroughly modern in size if not design inspiration, at 41mm x 9.7mm. The movement is a modern AP caliber, the 7129, which is a no-date version of the caliber 7121, which in turn was launched in 2022 for the new Royal Oak Jumbo ultra-thins. The movement is a good match for the case design; the rotor has been designed to reflect the geometry of the case.
There has since since the launch of the watch been some reservations expressed about the use of a round movement in such an uncompromisingly rectilinear case. It is perhaps worth noting that shaped movements in shaped watch cases have been, throughout the history of watchmaking, very much the exception rather than the rule, with round movements overwhelmingly predominating except in some specific instances (the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso is a good example) and many a noble Cartier Tank Cintrée had a round movement supplied by EWC. This flies a little in the face of modern sensibilities but no matter how you feel about this particular instance, AP is at least on solid ground historically (and the customized movement rotor is a very nice touch).
The dial is the same “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50” blue-black used in the original Royal Oak Jumbo. To improve legibility and allow for a longer minute hand, AP hit on the idea of making a cutout in one side of the case for the minute hand to fit under, between the hours of 8:00 and 10:00. Again, the position of the cutout is is not haphazard, with the edges lining up precisely with the radiating gold hour markers.
In some ways this is a very faithful interpretation of the original, but it is nonetheless an interpretation and there are differences in case design, movement (of course) and case finishing. The lines of the [RE]Master02 are more angular and the transitions are sharper. I have a nostalgic fondness for smaller cases sizes and would not have minded this watch at the original size or close to it at all, and it is without question true that changing the case size alters the proportional relationship of each element of the case.
However, a more physically and visually imposing version of the original is not a bad thing in and of itself, and the question is less whether or not the [RE]Master02 adheres strictly to the proportions of the original, than whether or not its proportions work in their own right. If the answer to that question is based on whether or not AP has created an immediately visually vivid watch, then I think the answer is yes, they do.
The only other note has to do with the statement from AP that this watch is “A Tribute To Brutalism.” In the narrow sense, I think the parallel is difficult to see. Yes, there is an almost harsh angularity to the watch case; in Brutalist architecture, there is nothing “almost” about the harsh angularity; the harshness is dialed up to 11. Brutalism also relies heavily on industrial materials – most notably, concrete – and completely rejects decorative finishing – those who object to the style do so on the grounds that it is heavy, graceless, and oppressive, none of which are criticisms you can apply to either the original 5159, or to the [RE]Master02, which makes use of unapologetically luxurious materials (the case is AP’s “sand gold,” which is an alloy of gold, copper, and palladium somewhere between white and red gold) and unapologetically luxurious finishing. To look at the [Re]Master02’s faceted and finely finished case is to be reminded of the facets of a jewel, not the crude roughness of Brutalism (if you ask me, anyway).
A major point worth considering, is what this latest [RE]Master02 says about the future of AP. The company has made its fortune on the Royal Oak and variants, including the Offshore and RD concept watches, and in the last few years the injection of some greater choice into its catalog, with the Code 11.59 models, has given AP some much needed if niche variety. You can’t draw any conclusions from a sample size of one new model, of course. But I’m one of those aging nostalgists who misses the Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet lines. I don’t know that AP should or would want, to revisit some of those designs but the aristocratic hauter of the Edward Piguet watches, and the refined expression of complicated watchmaking that was the Jules Audemars line, are something I would love to see return in greater numbers and greater variety in AP’s collections. Time will tell if [RE]Master remains a highly niche though fascinating variation, or if in some way, it is in some larger sense, the shape of things to come.
The [RE]Master02 selfwinding/ 41mm; limited edition of 250 pieces worldwide. Case, Asymmetrical 18k “sand gold’ sapphire crystals front and back; 41mm x 9.7mm; water resistance 30 meters. Dial, “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50” with satin finishing and sand gold hands. Movement, cal. 7129, 29.6mm x 2.8mm, extra-flat self-winding, 52 hour power reserve, running at 28,800 vph in 31 jewels. Price, 47,200. For more, visit AudemarsPiguet.com.