Audemars-Piguet

Maserati is famous for accessible performance, exclusivity, and style, a heritage dating back to 1914. Audemars-Piguet has been known for upholding its high standards of tradition, excellence, and innovation since 1875. As the leading firms in their fields, these two manufacturers are proving to be natural partners, enthusiasts of one brand usually being enthusiasts of both.

Audemars-Piguet is a family firm dedicated to the art and science of watch making. The company designs and creates luxury timepieces at its headquarters in Le Brassus, Switzerland, where it has been based for over 130 years. Beyond extending the watch maker's art into the 21st Century, Audemars-Piguet strives to keep alive our fascination and respect for the history of watches and watchmaking, perhaps the most sophisticated of industrial skills. At its manufacture, A-P maintains a museum with over 400 items on display, including its own delicate and complex Tourbillions and Grandes Complications. Each of these models have galleries named after them, from which visitors can enter into the world of hand crafted watches by observing their assembly. This is the level of personal engagement with which Audemars-Piguet and its clients interact, and it reflects the bespoke philosophy of Maserati.

Francois Bennahmias, CEO of Audemars-Piguet North America, believes his firm and Maserati are among the last companies catering to those who expect the very best, and require true exclusivity. "Our customers can have anything they want. They crave always the best, which is why they buy truly rare products like Audemars-Piguet and Maserati." Noting that A-P watches are extremely limited in production, and often cost as much as a car, Bennahmias expresses his company's extreme pride in craftsmanship and quality and what he defines as real exclusivity.

The latest example of this is the Millinary MC 12, a watch designed to honor Maserati's domination of the 2005 FIA GT Championship. It is a design of unsurpassed innovation and beauty. Employing many of the same composite materials from which the MC 12 racing car is formed, the watch evokes the speed, balance, and design of this very special car. With only 150 being produced, the Millinary MC 12 will be as highly prized as the car itself, a usable collectible for those of discerning taste.

The Audemars-Piguet and Maserati partnership extends beyond cars and watches. It embodies a lifestyle of excitement and good taste, of which the Audemars-Piguet Trofeo Maserati Europa is emblematic. As title sponsor of Maserati's single-marque series, Audemars-Piguet enters the rarified world of car racing with one of its greatest practitioners. The Trident's heritage is one of competition and victory, and with A-P as a partner it now races with, rather than against the clock. A-P is highly visible as a partner in the new Master Maserati driving school at Road Atlanta, the best high performance driving school available in North America, and the only one in which students learn on a real race track in thrilling Maseratis. The natural partnership of excellence, exclusivity, innovation and style represented by Maserati and Audemars-Piguet is thus realized across the globe.