Credited with opening the Royal Oak room, Sebastian Vivas, Heritage and Museum Director, Audemars Piguet, explains why knowledge of the past is integral to understanding the enduring legacy of timepieces.

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pstrongAs the heritage and museum director, what does your role demand"/strongbr /At Audemars Piguet, we have a long history, which started over 140 years ago. We are the inheritors of an industry. [So] itandrsquo;s important to know about this history to study it. Thatandrsquo;s the reason why we opened, in 1992, our first exhibition room with antique watches. Then, in 2004, we enlarged it to occupy the whole building of the first workshop of the company. Thatandrsquo;s the reason why we are going to expand it even further by 2018, hopefully, to transform it into a cutting-edge museum in Vallandeacute;e de Joux (Switzerland). The role of the heritage director in this context is to know the history to study it, to protect it, to enrich the collection, and to communicate it both internally and externally. It also enriches all the marketing tools that we develop, including publicationsandmdash;even web publicationsandmdash;conferences, lectures, and so on. As soon as we talk about history, the heritage department is involved, because we have to deliver the content.br /br /strongGiven your role, is there some information you can share about Audemars Piguet that few people are aware of"/strongbr /We had the opportunity, three years ago, to come across documents t...