SUMMER TIME FOR THE ROYAL OAK

The Royal Oak Offshore collection has switched to summer time with a new sun-kissed model and all its signature features: a stylish and sporty design.

This summer saw Audemars Piguet unveil a new pair of limited edition watches to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the brand’s partner, Hôtel Byblos, in style: the Royal Oak Offshore Summer Edition. A model for women, alongside its mechanical counterpart for men, has launched in sun-kissed hues. The Brassus-based brand has focused heavily on art de vivre and joined forces with the legendary luxury hotel to put their passion and sophistication into this watch.

Three blue-rimmed counters stand out on the 44mm dial and give the watch a racy look. The white rubber bracelet and rose gold deployment clasp give the rose gold case an extra glow and also comes in blue to give the Royale Oak Offshore Summer Edition a real summer feel.

Price: CHF 46,500

By Isabelle Guignet

THE POWER OF CERAMICS

Audemars Piguet made its first perpetual calendar wrist watch in 1955. A limited edition of nine gold pieces opened the way for this useful complication and has led, over 60 years later, to the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar.

Launched at the beginning of the year at the Salon international de haute horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva, this new Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar has an all-black case and dial.

True to the aesthetic codes of the Royal Oak collection, the watch features the famous octagonal bezel equipped with eight screws to crown the black ceramic watch case. The case is 41mm wide, is waterproof down to 50m and has a sapphire glass back. This means part of its mechanism is visible – namely, the calibre 5134, designed and made in Audemars Piguet’s Vallée de Joux workshops. The self-winding mechanical movement has a gentle rhythm of 19 800 vibrations an hour (2.75Hz) and provides a power reserve of about 40 hours.

On the anthracite grey dial, we naturally also find the famous relief “Grande Tapisserie” chequerboard pattern dial. On the disc adorned with small squares are four round bevelled silver counters. The perpetual calendar is laid out as follows: the day of the week is at 9 o’clock, the date at 3 o’clock and the months, including leap-years, at 12 o’clock. A hand with an arrow tip is placed at the centre to show the week number (out of 52) on the black chapter ring, while at 6 o’clock is a shining moon phase. The hours and minutes are displayed by two central hands travelling round an hour rim with white gold indices.

Prix: 85,000 CHF

By Sharmila Bertin

FUNKY COLOUR EDITIONS, PEP-FILLED DIVING WATCHES

The exciting new diving watches from the Royal Oak Offshore collection guarantee good humour to a depth of 300m. Enough to bring a smile to the face of the most terrifying sea creature! 

In 2016, a dazzling chronograph collection joined the Audemars Piguet catalogue. A year later, the watchmaker from Le Brassus has renewed the experience with some new Royal Oak Offshore Divers models, the Funky Colour Editions. Funky because the three-hand watches come in bright colours that are not much used in contemporary watchmaking: navy blue with yellow trim, pure white, lemon yellow, flash orange and kiwi green with blue touches.

The hour and date functions are powered by the 3120 calibre, a self-winding mechanism made by Audemars Piguet, and providing a power reserve of 60 hours. The calibre is housed in a steel case with a diameter of 42mm. Since the Royal Oak Offshore Divers is above all a divers watch, it is water-resistant to a depth of 300m, has a bolted crown sheathed in blue rubber, and is equipped with an internal revolving bezel incorporating the indispensable diving scale. The area from 0 to 15 minutes echoes the colour of the dial except in the blue model.

The dial has the chequerboard “Méga Tapisserie“ pattern, a feature of the Royal Oak Offshore Divers models. It contains an hour marker with gold indexes and two Royal Oak silver and luminescent hands (excepting the blue version, which has a minute hand with a yellow coating). The hour and minute hands are placed at the centre, while a third hand tipped with a phosphorescent dot displays the seconds. The date is shown against a blue or white background in a window at 3 o’clock.

Price : White ed. 17,190 CHF Color ed. 18,000 CHF

By Sharmila Bertin

A LEGEND IN YELLOW GOLD

At the SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie – International Fine Watchmaking Exhibition), the Le Brassus firm presented two new, extra-thin benchmark pieces with yellow gold cases – one of them also has a dial in yellow gold – in the Royal Oak collection, paying homage to their predecessors of 1972 and 1977.

In 1972, 45 years ago, a future legend was born; a luxury sports watch in steel radically different from the timepieces of the period: the Royal Oak. Designed by Gérald Genta (1931-2011), one of the greatest designers in the history of modern watchmaking, this new piece, topped with an octagonal bezel attached with eight hexagonal screws, appeared in yellow gold for the first time in 1977. This coloured metal, which suffered a decline towards the end of the 1990s and was abandoned in favour of white or rose gold, made a comeback less than two years ago. Indeed in 2016 at the SIHH, Audemars Piguet presented several Royal Oak watches in yellow gold (the quartz models, automatic models and those with the chronograph function) which enjoyed great success. The Le Brassus factory is renewing this experience this year with two new Royal Oak Extra-Thin watches.

Glowing like the sun, the case of this Royal Oak Extra-Thin watch in yellow gold measures 39mm in diameter (like its predecessor of 1972) by 8mm thick. Like the original Royal Oak of 1972, it has the 2121 calibre, manufactured by Audemars Piguet. This self-winding, mechanical movement measures the hours, minutes and date, and provides a power reserve of around 40 hours.

The dial is available in two colours on this model: a slightly paler blue than the usual shade which goes beautifully with the warmth of the gold, and an intensely-luminous, golden champagne colour which is reminiscent of the elegant watches of the Seventies. These two faces decorated with the “petite tapisserie” motif – the famous checkerboard textured pattern particular to the Royal Oak collection – hold an hour rim made up of luminescent markers. Two hands placed in the centre, also outlined in phosphorescent material, display the hours and the minutes, while the date appears in a display at the 3 o’clock position.

Price: 50,130 CHF

By Sharmila Bertin

OUTRAGEOUSLY SEXY

The Brassus factory presents the last watchmaking jewel of the “diamond” trilogy, the first one of which was born in 2015. It is a great, glittering, glamorous way to start the year, and to pay homage to the wild landscapes of their native area.

Two years ago, in 2015, Audemars Piguet began a new story in three chapters, with the creation that was part-watch and part-jewellery, and a fascinating design: Diamond Punk, a piece covered in diamonds, as its name suggests. The following year, in 2016, the Brassus factory continued this precious adventure with Diamond Fury, again covered in precious stones, and in 2017, they are concluding this trilogy with a spectacular “secret” cuff watch called Diamond Outrage.

To design Diamond Outrage, Audemars Piguet drew on their immediate surroundings: their native village of Brassus, in the heart of the Joux Valley in the Swiss Jura massif. The wild power of the landscape in the region known as the “Vaud Siberia”, and its pine forests with their tops covered with winter snow standing on the hillsides, obviously served as inspiration for the creation of a watch completely out of the ordinary, a unique piece that has more than 10,000 precious stones spread over the surface of its case.

Diamond Outrage is made up of a white gold case attached to a bracelet that is also made of white gold, both of which are completely covered with precious stones. The wild spirit of the Joux Valley is translated into a multitude of cones of different heights, ranging from 29 to 40mm. These “peaks”, like jewelled stalactites, are covered with 9,923 brilliant-cut diamonds (50.06 carats) placed using the snow-setting technique, and 354 baguette-cut diamonds (15.85 carats), embedded invisibly. Beneath this cloak of precious stones hides a mirror-polished dial where two little dauphine-shaped hour and minute hands glide, operated by the 2701 quartz movement.

There is a bluish-white version of the Diamond Outrage model which offers a case bristling with cones covered with 11,043 brilliant-cut sapphires (65.47 carats).

Price on request

By Sharmila Bertin

THE FLASH OF A STAR

The Vallée de Joux watchmaker went and captured light to dress the women’s version of his Royal Oak, whose 40^th anniversary will be celebrated at the end of this year.

1972 is the year that a watchmaking icon designed by Gérald Genta (19931-2011), considered by many as the greatest watchmaking designer of all time, was born: the Royal Oak model for Audemars Piguet. With powerful lines, a strong identity and a case topped with an octagonal screwdown bezel, the watch is instantly recognisable and is rapidly becoming a ­must-have timepiece. Four years after this fabulous creation, Jacqueline Dimier, recently employed by Audemars Piguet, was charged with taking another look at this very masculine object to make it a timepiece for women. She played with the proportions, and lengthened and refined its silhouette. The boys’ toy became a girls’ toy, and then, 40 years later, a stars’ toy. So this young forty-year-old passed into the hands of creative jeweller Carolina Bucci, who clothed her in light, sparkling like diamonds or stardust. Her name sounds like something from a fairy-tale: Royal Oak Frosted Gold – this novelty is clothed in rose or white gold, and offered in two sizes; 37 or 33mm in diameter.

It is the shimmering sparkle of the Royal Oak Frosted Gold case that catches the eye, the bezel with its 8 hexagonal screws and the links that make up its bracelet. This is achieved through a “Florentine” technique, which consists of hammering the metal delicately and meticulously using a tool with a diamond point to make minute hollows – a sort of precious frost-effect. The sides of the bezel are polished, whereas the body and the outside surfaces of the links have a brushed surface.

Faithfully following its predecessors, the silvery, opaline face of the Royal Oak Frosted Gold is marked with the famous chequerboard motif called “Grande Tapisserie”, with applied hour markers and Royal Oak hands in gold. The date is displayed simply at the 3 o’clock position.

The self-winding mechanical 3120 calibre is housed in the 37mm-diameter case. It provides the time-keeping and calendar functions, with a 60-hour power reserve. You can admire the movement of the oscillating golden weight through the sapphire crystal back of the watch.

The 33mm-diameter version holds a quartz movement, the 2713 calibre, which moves the hour and minute hands and displays the date, at the 3 o’clock position.

Price: 37,500 CHF (ø33, rose gold) – 42,500 CHF (ø33, white gold) – 46,500 CHF (ø37, rose gold) – 51,500 CHF (ø37, white gold)

By Sharmila Bertin

TAKE A WATCH ON THE WILD SIDE

When the Vallée de Joux watchmaker tames a wild animal, they unleash a precious and rare watch with personality for women who know what they want.

If you take a close look at the Audemars Piguet collections, you soon see that the Brassus brand likes to gives its pieces personality just like the famous Royal Oak by Gérald Genta. The Millenary Hand-Wound model epitomises watchmaking imbued with strong design. It’s designed for 21^st century women, is multi-facetted and plays on paradoxes with its feminine, maternal, oval curves and raw exposed mechanism. Soft yet strong, wise yet mad, traditional yet anti-conformist: the Millenary Hand-Wound is certainly a rule breaker.

To enhance its ambivalent personality, Audemars Piguet has given it a wild side but that doesn’t mean it’s fierce; everything comes together naturally on the Millenary Hand-Wound dial. Its look is certainly eye-catching but pleasingly so with slim stripes, clashing bubbles and black and white contrasts. To sum up, it’s a wild and complex animal occupying the entire territory embodied by the dial including the mechanism.

The zebra’s coat covers almost all the dial apart from an oblong display running from 8 to 10 which leaves part of the balance wheel bridge hanging in the air. The glittering hide alternates between wide monochrome onyx strips and stripes paved with 140 brilliant-cut diamonds. Two bevelled white gold discs camouflaged by the two-tone design lie off-centre and seem to collide. Two yellow gold spear-shape hands at 3 display the hours and minutes whilst the seconds tick down in their own counter at 6.

The time functions and 49-hour power reserve are fuelled by the manual wind 5205 calibre inside the white gold diamond-covered oval case and crown with an onyx cabochon.

Price: 67,000 CHF

By Sharmila Bertin

Audemars Piguet – Royal Oak Chronograph
Yellow gold was lauded for a long time until its popularity lapsed in the early Noughties. Now it’s making a comeback in Audemars Piguet’s classic collections.
The iconic Royal Oak Chronographe shines like the summer sun and its dial comes in two hues which perfectly match warm yellow gold: timeless white and inky blue adorned by the signature “Grande Tapisserie” pattern. The luminescent hour markers are tracked by two Royal Oak hour and minute hands whilst the seconds counter stands at 6.
The white or blue date display appears at 4.30 and the chronograph counters are placed as follows: seconds in the centre, minutes at 3 and hours at 9. The functions are fuelled by the self-winding 2385 calibre inside the 41mm case.
Price: 52,800 CHF
By Sharmila Bertin

If there was one model you couldn’t miss at this year’s SIHH, it was the super-bright Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph quartet. Is Audemars Piguet giving us a vibrant taster of summer 2016? Whatever they’re thinking, just one look at these flashy colours awakened us from our winter weariness. The same self-winding 3124/3841 calibre fuels the time and chronograph functions with a 50-hour power reserve. The same 42mm solid steel case is topped with the famous octagonal bezel and is water-resistant to depths of 300m. The almost fluorescent hues alone change from one dial to the next on the rotating internal bezel and chronograph hands. The famous “Méga Tapisserie“ checkerboard is splashed with lime green, electric yellow, zesty orange and deep blue with Royal Oak’s signature hour and minute hands in the centre and small seconds at 9 o’ clock. Price: 26,000 CHF. Sharmila Bertin

In a world ruled by technology and digital, people still admire engineering for its innovative techniques and reliability. Designed and made by man, it lives at our pace and at our hands. The proof is the new self-winding 5134 calibre made by Audemars Piguet. It is housed in the 41mm steel or rose gold case which fuels the many functions on the Royal Oak Quantième Perpétuel. Its blue or silver dial is adorned by the “Grande Tapisserie” pattern with the hours and minutes in the centre, days, month, date and leap years in three counters with hands at 3, 9 and 12 o’ clock plus an astronomical moon at 6 o’ clock. The 52 weeks on the chapter ring are tracked by an arrow-tipped central hand. The applied indices and Royal Oak hands all have a luminescent coating and come in white or rose gold subject to model. Price: 61’400 CHF – 93’000 CHF