Audemars Piguet at Harrods was a month-long exhibition in April 2022 marking 50 years of the Royal Oak watch. Dynamo LED Displays supplied the LED screens on hire: 2mm DEX Series panels built into tall vertical columns, stepped back on both sides, so visitors walked through a corridor of moving watch imagery.
Updated September 2026: rewritten with the exhibition dates, the screen specification and the build detail behind the stepped LED columns.
Project summary
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Client | Audemars Piguet |
| Venue | Harrods, Brompton Road, London SW1X 7XL |
| Occasion | Royal Oak: From Iconoclast to Icon, the 50th anniversary exhibition |
| Dates | 5 to 30 April 2022, open to the public with no ticket needed |
| Service | LED screen hire with installation and de-rig |
| Product | 2mm DEX Series indoor LED, 496 × 496 mm cabinets |
| Layout | Vertical LED columns on both sides of a walk-through corridor, each column set back from the one in front |
| Content | Animated Royal Oak dial and case imagery plus abstract environments |
The Royal Oak 50th anniversary exhibition at Harrods
The Royal Oak was launched in 1972 and is the watch Audemars Piguet is known for. To mark its fiftieth year the brand staged Royal Oak: From Iconoclast to Icon at Harrods, with heritage pieces on show from the original 1972 model onwards. The exhibition ran from 5 to 30 April 2022 in a dedicated space entered through Door 9 on Hans Road.
The set combined LED screens, neon lighting and gloss black enclosures with the watches themselves. Rather than a single screen on a wall, the LED was built into the architecture of the space. Visitors walked between the screens, so the imagery surrounded them instead of sitting in front of them.
What Dynamo supplied: 2mm DEX Series LED on hire
Dynamo supplied 2mm DEX Series indoor LED from our LED screen hire stock. The DEX 2mm cabinet is 496 × 496 mm with 248 × 248 pixels per cabinet, and the power supply and receiver card sit in a pack that comes out from the front. That matters in a build like this one, because the back of every column was boxed into an enclosure and could not be reached once the set was finished.
Pixel pitch was the main decision. Inside the corridor a visitor stands within a metre or two of the columns, close enough that a coarser rental pitch would have shown as a visible dot pattern. At 2mm the dial animations read as smooth graphics at arm’s length. For a wall viewed from across a hall we would normally suggest a 2.5mm or 3.9mm rental panel; for a walk-through set the fine pitch is worth the extra cost.
Why the stepped column layout works
Each column was set back from the one in front of it, on both sides of the corridor, so the two runs of screens converged towards a single screen at the far end. The stepping does three things. It gives the corridor depth, so a short walk feels longer. It hides the joins between cabinets, because each column is a separate face rather than one continuous wall. And it lets a single animation play across the whole run, with each column showing a slice of the same image.
Installing LED inside a live department store
Department-store work means fitting the build around trading hours, protecting finished floors and keeping every cable inside the enclosures. The exhibition ran for the full month, so the screens had to run all day, every day, without attention. A hire installation is not finished when the screens light up; it is finished when the content plays correctly on every column and the set can be left alone.
The same approach applied when we hired LED screens to Harrods for the Oculus Quest 2 launch. Both projects used fine-pitch indoor panels in a space where the customer is close to the screen and the finish has to match the store.
Other luxury retail LED hires from Dynamo
Luxury retail sets ask for the same things this one did: a pitch fine enough for close viewing, a finish that matches the store, and a build that disappears into the set. Recent examples include the Hermès 2024 festive LED window displays and the Glossier pop-up on Regent Street. Our guide to integrating rental LED into luxury retail covers pitch, brightness and content choices in more detail.
Audemars Piguet at Harrods LED Screen Hire: Frequently Asked Questions
What did Dynamo supply for Audemars Piguet at Harrods?
Dynamo supplied 2mm DEX Series indoor LED screens on hire, installed as vertical columns on both sides of a walk-through corridor inside the Royal Oak exhibition space at Harrods. The columns were stepped back from front to rear and boxed into gloss black enclosures, with neon lighting and the watches themselves completing the set.
When was the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak exhibition at Harrods?
Royal Oak: From Iconoclast to Icon ran at Harrods from 5 to 30 April 2022. It marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Royal Oak, which was launched in 1972. The exhibition was open to the public with no ticket or booking needed and was entered through Door 9 on Hans Road.
What pixel pitch is right for a luxury retail exhibition?
Use the viewing distance to decide. Where visitors stand within a metre or two of the screen, as they did inside this corridor, a 2mm or finer pitch keeps the image smooth. Where the screen is viewed from several metres away, a 2.5mm or 3.9mm rental panel does the job at lower cost. Fine pitch costs more per square metre, so specify it only where people get close.
Can LED screens be hired for a short exhibition in a department store?
Yes. This project ran for one month and was a hire, not a purchase. Dynamo supplies the panels, processing and installation crew, builds the screens into the set, commissions the content and returns to de-rig when the exhibition closes. Hire suits launches, anniversaries and seasonal windows where the screens are only needed for weeks rather than years.
How were the LED screens arranged at the Harrods exhibition?
As tall vertical columns rather than one flat wall. The columns lined both sides of a corridor and each was set back from the one in front, so the two runs converged on a final screen at the end. One animation played across all the columns at once, with each column carrying a slice of the image, which gave the corridor depth and hid the cabinet joins.
Does Dynamo hire LED screens for other luxury retail events?
Yes. Dynamo has hired LED screens to Harrods for the Oculus Quest 2 launch, supplied the Hermès 2024 festive window displays and built the LED for the Glossier pop-up on Regent Street. Each used fine-pitch indoor panels finished to match the store, with content and build handled by the Dynamo team.
Get a quote for LED screen hire at your next exhibition or launch. Tell us the venue, the dates and the look you want, and we will come back with a layout, a pixel pitch and a price. Contact Dynamo LED Displays or call 020 3489 9878.
This is one of our bespoke LED display projects — see our full custom and bespoke LED display capability for similar work.
