The very notion of preservation is a very obvious one in watchmaking, wether it implies historical brands and their patrimony, but also to new comers since so much has been invented over the last 200 years and is still a reference today. In a certain way, knowledge has mainly been shared from one craftsman to the other, schools have naturally had their importance too, but if no one takes close attention to this, then pieces of this knowledge, experience, know-how, tradition can simply get lost in time. 

There are unfortunately already too many examples going in that direction and we have talked about it on TheWATCHES.tv, but today we present you a very impressive documentation initiative behind which you will find Audemars Piguet and it is indirectly linked to watchmaking. In Switzerland, besides watches, chocolate and banks, there are some other institutions and one of them is the Montreux Jazz Festival, which is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year. Since all these years, this festival has hosted practically all the important jazz musicians, but also some other ultra famous music groups and every single concert has been recorded. 

Never the less, those archives were also suffering from age and were just piling up in some safe house and it has been decided to digitise all these archives a few years ago. Because of the immensity of the task, the Montreux Jazz Festival partnered with the polytechnic school of Lausanne (EPFL) and their engineering skills, but also with Audemars Piguet to cary this huge project. The ultimate goal is to be able to share this collection to as many people as possible, whether through digital means, but also for instance with the inauguration later this fall of a Montreux Jazz Café directly in the center of the EPFL. 

This all made sense for Audemars Piguet to sponsor this endeavour, as there are naturally some parallels to be made with the responsibility of the watch brand to share its knowledge and patrimony for the future of watchmaking. Find out more with the interview of Olivier Audemars, Member of the Board of AP, the reasons which led the brand to be behind this vast project.