The Heart of Time

Ilaria Resta, the CEO of Audemars Piguet, discusses the brand's latest collection, her personal style philosophy and what she sees as the beating heart of Asia's most dynamic city

- By Amrita Katara

Morning light streams through the windows of a Rosewood Hong Kong suite as Ilaria Resta settles into her chair for another day of meetings during the brand's anniversary celebrations in the city. On the CEO of Audemars Piguet's wrist sits a 38mm perpetual calendar with a light blue dial, powered by its new calibre 7136—one of the new pieces that marks a genuine first for the 150-year-old manufacture. The brand has never offered a perpetual calendar in this more manageable size, and Resta is excited.

“What I love about these watches is the diversity in terms of aesthetics and complications," she says, glancing at the Code 11.59 38mm Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon collection, which consists of three new watches, each sporting a different stone dial, spread before us. "If you look at the three stones with the flying tourbillon, they really speak to style people who want to coordinate their outfit with certain colours of the dial and the beauty of the gemstones."

The stone dial collection represents months of careful sourcing: ruby root from Tanzania paired with 18-karat white gold, blue sodalite from Brazil set against pink gold, and green malachite from Zambia complemented by yellow gold. Each houses the ultra-thin calibre 2968 flying tourbillon, a technical marvel at just 3.4mm thick.

"We always say we are in the business of emotion," Resta says, "so the idea of wearing stones that have a sort of power—an emotional power, to be precise—fits very nicely with our business. This idea of carrying the emotion of the watchmaker all the way to the wearer of the watch ... the stone amplifies these positive vibes even further."