Time is normally something we measure, but Audemars Piguet would rather have us appreciate it. From 10 to 13 September, the Swiss haute horlogerie manufacture brings 150 years of watchmaking to the National Museum of Singapore with “Perspectives on Time”, an immersive exhibition that goes beyond the polished surfaces of a timepiece to reveal the craft and history beating beneath them.
Held at The Gallery Theatre, the exhibition brings together archival timepieces, contemporary creations, as well as interactive experiences. The highlight? Pieces from the Audemars Piguet Museum making their way to Singapore for the first time.
“Perspectives on Time” unfolds across four distinct rooms, each offering a different way of seeing what goes into making and mastering a mechanical watch.
The journey begins in 1875, when Audemars Piguet was founded in Le Brassus. Looking Back and Beyond traces the manufacture’s evolution through rare archival timepieces, offering a glimpse into the milestones that have shaped the house over the past century and a half.
It is a reminder that before watchmaking became synonymous with technical bravado and collectible objects, it was first an exercise in precision and an almost obsessive attention to detail.
From there, the exhibition looks upwards. Astronomy: Guided by the Cosmos explores Audemars Piguet’s long-standing mastery of astronomical complications, bringing together timepieces from different generations. Visitors will also see a demonstration that brings one of the manufacture’s most intricate calendar mechanisms to life.
If a watch’s exterior is the part we instinctively admire, The Beauty Within asks us to look beneath it. The room explores the art of openworking, tracing the technique through exceptional vintage watches before showing how it continues to inform the watchmaker’s contemporary designs. Bridges and gears become part of the visual language, turning mechanical complexity into something to be observed as much as understood.
The final room, Crafting the Future: Giving Time a Voice, takes the most unexpected approach of all: listening. It explores one of watchmaking’s rarest complications, in which sound itself becomes a form of craftsmanship. A live demonstration will offer visitors the chance to hear the mechanism up close.
Audemars Piguet: Perspectives on Time is open to the public from 10 to 13 September, from 10.30am to 6pm in 30-minute sessions. Admission is free, with advance registration here encouraged due to limited session capacity.
