Audemars Piguet Adds "Watch Maker" Charm To Their Bal Harbor Boutique

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Nov 4th 2009 at 4:02PM

Those people familiar with the shops at Bal Harbour knows how each luxury brand situated there feels the need to one up each other. This makes sense given the locations ability to attract the wealthiest Floridian buyers, as well as those who travel to the shopping center from around the world. Over the last few year Audemars Piguet has been playing with a new type of marketing campaign dedicated to enhancing the artisan-like feel of the brand. This essentially means that they want you thinking that watch makers time traveled from 1875 to the present day, and are hand-making Audemars Piguet watches in candle light somewhere in the heart of Switzerland. Most of this is true - save for the candle light.

Selling ultra luxury watches is as much about selling the final product as it is about selling how they were made. For this purpose, the Audemars Piguet Bal Harbour boutique has been temporarily transformed to include watch movement sketches, work tables, tools, and other items of traditional watch making construction. The good news is, that if you visit an actual Swiss watch making factory, all of these same tools are pretty much used - though maybe modernized a bit. Audemars Piguet does take much pride in the fact that they practice "traditional watch making" techniques. The display is a good idea , because it attempts to show a manufacture made mechanical watch in its natural element. If you are in the area, check it out. The window display will be up through the end of the year at the Audemars Piguet store at the Bal Harbour stores in Miami, Florida.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Audemars Piguet Bal Harbour display Nov 2009