Sébastian Vivas, Heritage & Museum Director at Audemars Piguet (Le Brassus, Switzerland)
Video recordings of lectures are available immediately to HSNY members, and the general public with a 2 month delay.
In 2022, the Royal Oak watch is celebrating its 50th anniversary. In preparation for this event, the Audemars Piguet Heritage team spent a few years in the brand’s archives to better understand the history of this iconoclastic timepiece, which became a cultural icon within and beyond watchmaking.
This lecture will share the results of this ongoing research, while shedding light on the major actors involved in the watch’s creation, among whom are Italian agent Carlo de Marchi, designer Gérald Genta, and former CEO of Audemars Piguet Georges Golay. It will also pay tribute to the many people and companies that contributed to the timepiece’s challenging development: case-maker Favre-Perret, movement-maker LeCoultre & Cie, bracelet-maker Gay Frères and famous dial-maker Stern Frères.
At the June 6, 2022, lecture of the Horological Society of New York, Sébastian Vivas, Heritage & Museum Director at Audemars Piguet, will distinguish myth from reality in terms of the watch’s creation process as well as its reception, commercial success and extraordinary destiny.
About Sébastian Vivas
In 2001, Sébastian Vivas obtained his Master’s in Modern History at the University of Neuchâtel. He went on to publish the history of the Journal Suisse d’Horlogerie, a study awarded by the Fritz Kunz prize. From 2001 to 2012, Vivas served as Heritage Manager at Jaeger-LeCoultre, where he contributed to several exhibitions, publications and to the creation of the in-house museum, named the Heritage Gallery, inaugurated in 2007.
Since 2012, he has acted as Heritage & Museum Director at Audemars Piguet, where he oversees the study, structuring, preservation and communication of the brand’s heritage. He is assisted in this mission by a diverse team, which includes restoration watchmakers, historians and archivists.
Among his notable contributions, Vivas directed and co-authored the book Audemars Piguet 20th Century Complicated Wristwatches published in 2018, as well as the web platform APChronicles, launched in 2022. He also managed the project of the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, which opened its doors in 2020, and continues to curate its permanent and temporary exhibitions. Lastly, he has curated a variety of exhibitions for the brand, among which Beyond Watchmaking (Shanghai 2016, Tokyo 2019).