FOR THE ROYAL OAK SELFWINDING IN 41 MM
Following on the footsteps of the Royal Oak Selfwinding Rainbow Sets launched in 2022, the Swiss Haute Horlogerie manufacturer Audemars Piguet continues to explore highly creative settings.
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This year, the Manufacture presents two fully paved 41 mm Royal Oak Selfwinding models with a camouflage pattern that extends from the dial to the case and bracelet. The motif is made up of 861 baguette-cut gemstones in graduated shades of blue or in green, brown and black tones – an industry first.
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AN UNPRECEDENTED CAMOUFLAGE DESIGN
Since its inception, the Manufacture has pushed the boundaries of the craft, pioneering avant-garde aesthetics with a variety of shapes, colours, finishing techniques and gemsetting.
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This year, it is exploring the creative possibilities of camouflage patterns, which made their debut at Audemars Piguet in 2018 on the rubber straps of Royal Oak Offshore models. While AP’s R&D department unveiled new polychrome materials with a similar motif earlier this year, the Manufacture reinterprets this emblematic design once again, this time through gemsetting.
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While the first timepiece is adorned with graded blue sapphires and Swiss blue topaz (~ 44.32 carats), the second reference combines black sapphires, intense and light tsavorites and smoky quartz (~ 39.91 carats) to create harmonious shades of green, brown and black.
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Finding the right stones, colours and contrasts, while meeting Audemars Piguet’s strict criteria for colour, clarity and quality, was a crucial step in the design of these two timepieces. Each gemstone underwent an intensive quality control process.
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Samira Ribeaucourt
Gemmologist, Audemars Piguet
ART OF INVISIBLE SETTING
To match the architecture of the Royal Oak case, bracelet and dial, the coloured gemstones were individually cut into baguettes of 179 different sizes, before being hand polished to present sharp and clear angles. The quality of the cut is as important as the intrinsic quality and clarity of the stones. Not only must they be loupe clean (i.e., no inclusions visible when examining the gemstone with a x10 loupe). Their lines and stepped facets must also be perfectly symmetrical and aligned to allow light to pass through.
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The dial alone is covered with 152 gemstones, cut in 28 different sizes – a technical feat given the thinness of the gold plate on which they are set. To give them pride of place, the hour-markers have been omitted, while the “Audemars Piguet” signature and the “Swiss Made” indication have been discreetly printed in white on the underside of the sapphire crystal.
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The invisible setting influenced the entire fabrication process of the dial and bracelet links, from their construction and precise manufacturing to their finishing. The technical and gemsetting teams worked hand in hand through all stages of production to push creativity, while retaining the collection’s aesthetic codes and ensuring water-resistance, reliability, robustness and repairability.
The two timepieces are powered by blue, the most recent selfwinding hours, minutes and seconds movement in this diameter developed by the Manufacture. The date indication has been left out to give pre-eminence to the gemsetting on the dial.
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The movement is equipped with a patented mechanism that provides stability and precision when setting the watch. In addition, its generous 32 mm in diameter enables optimal timekeeping precision, while its power reserve of a least 70 hours is ideal for contemporary lifestyles.
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The movement’s rhodium-toned 22-carat pink gold oscillating weight and its emblematic Haute Horlogerie decorations, such as Côtes de Genève, satin brushing, circular graining and polished chamfers, can be admired through the timepieces’ sapphire casebacks.
Since its inception, Audemars Piguet has collaborated with several prestigious jewellery brands, including Tiffany, Cartier, Oscar Heyman and Bvlgari to case its movements in unique Haute Joaillerie creations. From the late 19th century until the 1970s, the Manufacture often sold the movement and dial to the jeweller who took care of the external design of the watch and signed it before selling it through their network. Diamonds and coloured gemstones, such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires were frequently used to embellish women’s creations. Over time, gemstones were incorporated into a wide variety of designs.
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The 1960s and 1970s saw the development of creative watches enriched with natural stone dials, including tiger’s eye, lapis lazuli, aventurine, grossular garnet, opal, onyx, ruby, amethyst and japser, to name but a few. These colourful dials were sometimes combined with other gemstones featured on the case and bracelet.
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In the 1980s, the growing trend for watches with welded bracelets led Audemars Piguet to open its own jewellery workshop, run by a handful of experts. Although the brand continued to work closely with external jewellers, more and more of its gemset timepieces were created in-house. In the decades that followed, the Manufacture created expressive, one-of-a-kind jewellery watches, often accompanied by matching jewellery sets. These unique creations led to the development of Audemars Piguet’s Haute Joaillerie collection in 2013. With distinctive pieces such as the Diamond Trilogy (2015–2017) and the Sapphire Orbe (2019), this collection broke with traditional notions of gemset watches.
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Far from being confined to these one-off Haute Joaillerie creations, gemsetting now permeates Audemars Piguet’s collections. While some timepieces feature a bezel set with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts or rainbow-coloured gems, to name but a few, others are entirely paved with diamonds or coloured stones, culminating in the launch of the Royal Oak Selfwinding Rainbow Sets in 2022.
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Building on the Manufacture’s long heritage of high-jewellery watches, the two new camouflage Royal Oak Selfwinding timepieces continue to combine age-old techniques with ever more contemporary design, taking the art of gemsetting and watchmaking to new heights.
“Seek Beyond.”
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TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Model: ROYAL OAK Self-winding / 41 mm
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Reference : 15514BC.YY.1284BC.04 - Blue
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Reference : 15514BC.YY.1284BC.02 - Green, Brown and Black
MovementSelf-winding Manufacture calibre 4309
Total diameter 32 mm (14 lignes
Total thickness 4.9 mm
Number of parts 225
Number of jewels 32
Minimum power reserve guaranteed 70 h
Frequency of balance wheel 4 Hz (28,800 vibrations/hour)
Functions
Hours, minutes and centre seconds.
Case
- 18-carat white gold case and bezel set with a total of 💎132 baguette-cut gemstones (graded blue sapphires and Swiss blue topaz) (~ 11.17 carats)
- 18-carat white gold case and bezel set with a total of 💎132 baguette-cut gemstones (black sapphires, intense and light tsavorites and smoky quartz) (~ 10.48 carats)
Diameter: 41 mm
Thickness: 11.6 mm
Water-resistant to 20 m
Dial
- Dial set with 💎152 baguette-cut gemstones (graded blue sapphires and Swiss blue topaz) (~ 11.43 carats), white gold Royal Oak hands with luminescent material.
- Dial set with 💎152 baguette-cut gemstones (black sapphires, light and intense tsavorites and smoky quartz) (~ 9.83 carats), white gold Royal Oak hands with luminescent material.
- 18-carat white gold bracelet set with 💎577 baguette-cut gemstones (graded blue sapphires and Swiss blue topaz) (~ 21.72 carats), AP folding clasp.
- 18-carat white gold bracelet set with 💎577 baguette-cut gemstones (black sapphires, light and intensetsavorites and smoky quartz) (~ 19.6 carats), AP folding clasp.
New Product Overview 2024
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Press Release - 2024
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Audemars Piguet (Marketing) SA
Route de France 16 - Case postale 16
1348 Le Brassus - Switzerland
Phone : + 41 21 642 39 00
Fax : + 41 21 642 34 02
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