Audemars Piguet and Miami Have a 20-Year Love Story — AP House is the Latest Chapter

There’s no denying Miami has positioned itself as a major player in the watch industry, from new, expansive boutique openings to the inaugural Haute Time Miami Watch Summit last November.

The relationship between Audemars Piguet and Miami goes way back. The Swiss manufacture — the oldest fine watchmaking company still in the hands of its founding families, rooted in Le Brassus since 1875 — has had a relationship with the Magic City that goes back nearly two decades, one built not just on retail presence but on genuine cultural investment, iconic moments, and a shared belief that the most meaningful experiences happen at the intersection of creativity, craftsmanship, and community. This March, that relationship reached a new milestone with the opening of the brand’s first AP House in Miami Beach — and its second location in the city overall.

Audemars Piguet first arrived in Miami in 2006 with its Bal Harbor boutique. Two decades later, the new AP House in the heart of Miami Beach’s prestigious neighborhood, Sunset Harbour, represents an entirely different kind of presence — one that transcends retail entirely. At 7,300 square feet of interior space seamlessly connected to a large outdoor terrace, the AP House Miami is designed to immerse guests in the rhythms, sights, and sounds that define both the brand and the city it now calls home.

To understand what the AP House Miami Beach represents, it helps to first consider the history that preceded it. Audemars Piguet’s relationship with Miami has never been purely transactional — it has been cultural, creative, and, at its best, genuinely surprising.

It began in earnest at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2013, when the brand unveiled Curiosity — a large-scale inflatable snow-covered chalet by French artist duo Kolkoz, presented in collaboration with Galerie Perrotin. The piece floated on the warm turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay, moored next to the decommissioned Miami Marine Stadium — a 1963 modernist masterpiece that once hosted powerboat races. The snowy Alpine scene, drifting as if aboard an iceberg in the Florida sun, was a playful and deeply intelligent statement: a nod to the remote village of Le Brassus and the manufacturer’s perpetual quest to explore new territories, technical and aesthetic alike. Viewers were invited inside the inflatable structure to observe Miami’s distant skyline from its puffy portal — an incongruous, unforgettable experience that only Audemars Piguet could have conceived.

The following year, in 2014, the brand returned to Art Basel Miami Beach with something equally extraordinary. In collaboration with the Peabody Essex Museum, Audemars Piguet presented six kinetic, wind-powered creatures — Strandbeests, or “beach beasts” in Dutch — by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. Intricately constructed from PVC tubes, plastic bottles, and recycled materials, Jansen’s creatures possessed an uncanny lifelike locomotion, the result of nearly 30 years of experimentation and development near the seaside. They could respond to environmental conditions — storing wind power, changing direction when they sensed water, and anchoring themselves during storms. 

Most recently, during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2023, Audemars Piguet Contemporary commissioned Sallisa Rosa — the same artist whose works now grace the walls of AP House Miami Beach — to create Topography of Memory, a new large-scale ceramic installation presented at the Collins Park Rotunda in Miami Beach. It marked Rosa’s first solo exhibition in the United States and her first installation made entirely of ceramics. The commission later traveled to the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, where it became the first exhibition in Brazil of a work commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary. That Rosa’s work now lives permanently within the AP House Miami Beach feels entirely intentional — a thread connecting the brand’s cultural history in the city to its newest chapter.

Beyond Art Basel, Audemars Piguet’s Miami story has been shaped by some of the most significant ambassador relationships in the brand’s history. The brand launched its partnership with Shaquille O’Neal at the Setai in November 2007 — one of the earliest and most high-profile alignments between a Swiss watchmaker and an NBA icon, held at one of Miami Beach’s most prestigious addresses. Then, in April 2011, LeBron James was announced as an Audemars Piguet ambassador at Soho House Miami Beach — a moment that cemented the brand’s position at the intersection of watchmaking and sports culture in a way that few in the industry had managed before. And in September 2013, the LeBron collection launched at 1111 Lincoln Road — one of Miami’s most architecturally iconic addresses — completing a trilogy of Miami moments that defined a new era for the brand.

“Audemars Piguet is proud to introduce AP House Miami to clients, newcomers, partners, and friends in the region,” said Louis-Gabriel Fichet, CEO of Audemars Piguet Americas. “We look forward to welcoming guests into our newest space that reflects both the spirit of AP and the energy of Miami, defined by hospitality, creativity, and a vibrant cultural point of view.”

Back to AP House Miami — from the moment you set foot into the space, you are immediately immersed in Audemars Piguet’s Miami.

For the interior design, Audemars Piguet collaborated with Miami-based Studio DADO, drawing inspiration from the Swiss village of Le Brassus. The result is a space that feels entirely of Miami while remaining unmistakably AP: blush tones, soft edges, and natural materials — stone, wood, metals, and textured glass — create an environment that is warm, considered, and deeply beautiful. Not to mention the 360-degree bay views that live up to Sunset Harbour’s namesake sunrises and sunsets. It is a space that invites you to slow down, which is, perhaps, the most fitting tribute to a brand that has spent a century and a half mastering the art of time.

The experience inside is as layered as the interiors. Guests move through a micro-museum of Audemars Piguet’s finest timepieces, honoring the manufacture’s craftsmanship and legacy. A watchmaker’s hutch offers consultations with experts and a curated selection of watch bands. A dedicated listening corner — complete with a record player and hand-selected iconic albums — reflects the brand’s long-standing affinity with music (and an iconic photo of former Haute Living cover star and longtime friend of the Audemars Piguet brand, DJ Khaled). Bespoke furniture, thoughtfully chosen objects, books, and artwork round out a space that functions as much as a cultural destination as a watch boutique. 

For the ultimate ‘Miami’ experience, Audemars Piguet has crafted a beverage, exclusive to AP House Miami, infused with fresh fruit and ginger, as well as a bespoke French pastry made by the esteemed local bakery True Loaf.

The art on display is as carefully considered as everything else. Sculptures by Brazilian artist Sallisa Rosa — whose ceramic works reflect her personal history and heritage — are featured throughout, alongside additional works graciously lent by Wilde Gallery (Geneva), a friend of the brand’s contemporary art commissioning program, Audemars Piguet Contemporary. Rosa’s presence here is not incidental: she is part of a longer story between Audemars Piguet and Miami that has been building for years.

The AP House Miami Beach joins a global network of Houses spanning Amsterdam, Atlanta, Bangkok, Barcelona, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Mexico City, Munich, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo, among others. But given everything that has come before it, the Miami House feels like more than the latest addition to that network. It feels like an arrival — the culmination of a relationship built carefully, creatively, and with genuine respect for the city that has given the brand so much in return.