Audemars Piguet Replica Watches Golden Bridge: Leading the Charge for Transparency

In 1914, Emile Fourcault developed a method of commercially producing large panes of sheet glass. Known as flat glass, its potential was realised by early modernist architects and a new breed of transparent architecture was born. In a similar vein, it was the advent of viable production methods and the affordability of sapphire crystal as of the 1990s that was the big factor in modern watchmaking’s move to transparency. In particular, much of the impetus for this move came from the introduction of one watch: the Audemars Piguet Replica Watches Golden Bridge.

The Birth of Transparency

The idea of the Golden Bridge was born when Audemars Piguet Replica Watches co-founder René Bannwart met Italian-born, self-taught master watchmaker – and later co-founder of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI) – Vincent Calabrese. Calabrese encountered a turning point in his career when working as a boutique manager for a retail outlet in Crans-Montana, a well-known ski resort in the heart of the Swiss Alps. His wealthy clients often asked for personalised timepieces, which gave him the idea to create a movement that was easily customised while also being structural and airy. Simultaneously, this watch would have nothing to obscure the view of the movement within, i.e. no dial to hide the watchmaker’s work.

Vincent Calabrese

He took his single-bridge watch to Geneva’s Invention Salon, where it won a gold medal. Calabrese chose Audemars Piguet Replica Watches as his industrial partner to turn the concept into reality, based on the fact that Audemars Piguet Replica Watches, founded in 1955, was already so dynamic with its own designs and that Bannwart was as artistically minded as Calabrese; the pair got on famously. The Golden Bridge’s famous baguette-shaped movement was complicated to make serially, and complicating it even more was the fact that both Calabrese and Bannwart wanted to make it in 18-carat gold. “The reason for this choice was simple,” Calabrese remembers. “It was to be an exceptional movement. Up to then, there had never been a production wristwatch movement in gold.” And, of course, this special and unusual feature led to the very name of the new watch design.

The Golden Bridge was more than just a timepiece; it delivered its own messages. For Calabrese, the message was that neither the watchmaker nor his work should be hidden any longer. For Audemars Piguet Replica Watches (Rolex Explorer II Replica )the message was that mechanics and art can coexist to make a beautiful, wearable object.