Audemars Piguet - Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon

AUDEMARS PIGUET - Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon White Ceramic NEW

Bright, white, sleek and powerful, the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon to be presented for the first time at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie 2014 (SIHH) in Geneva, is a watch for avant-garde collectors and connoisseurs that brooks no compromise in either technical or aesthetic terms

Its sculpted titanium case middle  and integrated rubber strap combine with a white ceramic bezel to frame the highly architectural array of tourbillon carriage and second ‘GMT’ time-zone display inside – case and movement in perfect harmony. New for 2014, however, is the flash of pure white centre-stage: an intricately machined upper bridge made of white ceramic – only possible now, thanks to Audemars Piguet’s ongoing advances in materials science.

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The Concept evolution

The Royal Oak Concept was first unveiled in 2002 as an avant-garde, 30th-anniversary tribute to Audemars Piguet’s legendary octagonal Royal Oak – designed by Gérald Genta as the world’s first luxury watch in stainless steel.
The Concept’s ultra-hard Alacrite 602 case was more rounded to highlight Genta’s signature octagonal bezel and its eight hexagonal screws. The dial was left off, exposing the advanced micro-mechanics ticking within. All these revolutionary design codes have persisted throughout the Concept series, from 2008’s Royal Oak Carbon Concept Tourbillon and Chronograph – an ultra-light timepiece that was the first to combine a forged-carbon case and movement mainplate – to the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon of 2011, with ultra-light, ultra-resistant titanium case and black-ceramic octagonal bezel, pushpieces and crown.

This year’s Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon features a white ceramic bezel, crown and pushpieces instead of black, all heightening the contrast with the titanium case middle. However, in typical, trailblazing style, the Manufacture has now gone one step further and incorporated ceramic into the movement itself, replacing the blackened upper bridge of Calibre 2913 with white ceramic. As a result, the new Calibre 2930 is visually transformed, its dazzling, hourglass-shaped bridge further enlivened by the double symmetry of the tourbillon bridges and GMT display.

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Materials know-how

White ceramic is about nine times harder than steel, meaning the manufacture of the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon’s bezel, pushpieces, crown and especially its intricately shaped upper bridge was a complex and lengthy process.
Ceramic is an almost totally scratchproof composite material that can be scratched only by diamonds, calling for the use of special milling-cutter machines equipped with diamond-tipped tools. Treating the roughed-out surfaces and edges to a polished or satin-brushed finish represents a daunting technical challenge, due to ceramic’s inherent resistance to abrasion. It takes around 8 hours to make the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon’s bezel, compared with 45 minutes if it were steel, calling upon all the savoir-faire of the watchmakers and engineers. As well as giving an exceptionally smooth final appearance, ceramic has a practical purpose, displaying extreme resistance to wear.

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Similarly, the titanium used for the case middle and sapphire surround is ultra strong, comfortable to wear twice and as light as steel – advantageous for a watch of such generous 44mm proportions. Further demonstrating Audemars Piguet’s deeply entrenched knowledge of high-tech metals and materials, the inner flange circling the dial is made of lightweight aluminium, hardened by anodisation.
This daring cocktail of ceramics and metals is just the latest chapter in Audemars Piguet’s ongoing quest to push the envelope when it comes to materials science – a quest that started over 40 years ago with the Manufacture’s most daring move of all, using steel in a luxury watch for the very first time.

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Technical tour de force

The defining characteristic of Audemars Piguet’s Concept watches has always been the coherence of case and movement. The ultra-modern ‘engine’ is seamlessly integrated within its ultra-modern ‘chassis’, whose techy aesthetic perfectly complements and showcases the exposed micro-mechanics.
An impressive feat in its own right, the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon’s hand-wound Calibre 2930 features a twin barrel ensuring 10-day power reserve, tourbillon and second time-zone ‘GMT’ display.

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Its timekeeping is regulated by a 3Hz (21,600vph) escapement, rotating inside a tourbillon carriage every 60 seconds, compensating for the effects of the Earth's gravity when the watch is oriented vertically for any length of time.
The tourbillon cage comprises 85 components, yet only 0.45g in weight. An experienced watchmaker spends almost three days assembling its 85 components, including two full days to install the cage, while the full workings will require over two weeks of work. Audemars Piguet is still one of the few manufactures to have mastered all the intricacies of this complication, with over 25 different movements featuring a tourbillon. Each component is bevelled, polished, assembled and balanced by hand.
       

The GMT display provides an instant reading of the time in a second time-zone. It is adjusted using the pushpiece at 4 o’clock (one press adjusts the time by one hour). The indication of the second time-zone, based on 12 hours, comprises two superimposed discs, making it easy to tell the time. The first, on which the figures are inscribed, completes one turn in 12 hours. The second, just below, completes a turn in 24 hours and has 2 coloured areas: a white half for daytime and a black half for night-time. This makes it easier to read the figures.

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Audemars Piguet’s proprietary parallel double barrel system ensures the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon runs for as many as 10 days before it needs to be manually wound again, generating a constant force during some 237 hours of autonomy, enhancing timekeeping precision.
The energy from Calibre 2930’s two 10-day barrels is fed into the geartrain at the same time via a single pinion bridging the two. This is a far gentler means of transmitting energy than the usual system of two series-linked 5-day barrels. It also reduces pressure in the gearing, the friction in the barrels is used to offset torque variations, and it gives increased running precision, greater power reserve and enhanced reliability.
The Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon also features a selection indicator mechanism. According to the position of the winding stem, the hand positioned on the dial at 6 o’clock indicates the function selected. The H, N and R indications correspond to the three positions of the winding stem, meaning time-setting, neutral and winding respectively


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Technical Specifications

Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon

Reference: RO 26580IO OO D010CA SDT

Movement

Calibre 2930, hand-wound manufacture
Total diameter: 35.60mm (15 ¾ lines)
Thickness: 9.90mm
Number of jewels: 29
Number of parts: 291
Power reserve: 237h
Frequency of balance wheel: 3Hz (21,600vph)
White ceramic upper bridge
Finishing: hand-finished bridges and mainplate, hand finished cut-out parts, polished angles, hand-drawn file strokes on upper surface and matt finish beneath.

Case

Titanium case
Glareproofed sapphire crystal and caseback
White ceramic bezel
Screw-locked crown and white ceramic pushpiece
Water-resistant to 100m

Display

Openworked
Second time-zone indicator at 3 o’clock
Crown position indicator at 6 o’clock
Tourbillon at 9 o’clock with black anodized aluminium bridge
White gold Royal Oak hands with luminescent coating
Black anodized aluminium inner bezel

Bracelet

White rubber strap with titanium AP folding clasp

Function

24-hour GMT display
Day and night indicator
Functions selection
Hours and minutes

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VOUTILAINEN - V-8R Limited Edition

VOUTILAINEN - V-8R Limited Edition

 V-8R is the winner of the GPHG 2013 in men's watch catagory.

Kari Voutilainen was born in Finland in 1962 and has a passionate interest in horology spanning thirty years. He completed his initial watchmaker’s training at the world renowned watchmaking school of Tapiola in Finland.

He first came to Switzerland in 1989 to attend the International Watchmaking School, where he completed the WOSTEP complicated watch course, a post graduate course for those watchmakers dedicated to the restoration of complicated, high quality rare watches. He was quickly spotted by Parmigiani Mesure et Art du Temps, where over the following ten years he was at the centre of the restoration work of some of the world’s rarest pieces as well as the creation of new and original ‘one-off’ pieces.

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Giving back to others much of the fruit of his experience, Kari Voutilainen taught for the next three years at the WOSTEP School of Watchmaking, heading the department of complicated watchmaking. He also undertook the complete training of beginners, and added many new courses to the curriculum that he had devised himself.



He is, as his nature suggests, the first to commend the kind and generous teaching of those master watchmakers who have passed on their ‘centuries old’ watchmaking knowledge.

Alongside his professional work, Kari Voutilainen has devoted himself, through many long evenings of tireless work over the last fifteen years, to developing the ultimate perfection of new and unique mechanisms, which are represented in his highly elegant watches.

Following his passion, and in order to preserve this highly prized tradition, Kari Voutilainen established his own business as an independent Artist Watchmaker in the village of Môtiers in 2002. The beautiful and tranquil region of ‘Val-de-Travers’ gives itself by its very nature to thoughtful and creative watchmaking. Distant markets as far away as China have been conquered by the works of past Masters from this region.

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Kari Voutilainen’s natural gift for perfection, coupled with his broad experience and deep understanding of very high quality, antique, complicated watches, are the quintessential ingredients for innovative creation in the art of watchmaking. Not one to satisfy himself by imagined creations alone, he makes all of his creations himself. He is totally involved in every detail whether technical or aesthetic; like a true artist or sculptor, nothing is left to chance.

Only this way can his masterpiece timekeepers, based on solid technical foundations and incorporating timeless classical design, pass from generation to generation as the inheritance of a time honoured and proudly maintained tradition.

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As with all entirely handmade watches, their number will remain limited; each one is crafted according to specific requirements and has its own individual and personal qualities. It goes without saying that these technical marvels are clothed and protected only by the most precious of metals.

It is for these reasons that pieces signed by Kari Voutilainen will make their mark in the history of watchmaking, to the great delight of those collectors fortunate enough to own one.

Kari Voutilainen: “When I was designing my in house caliber some years ago, there were already plans in my mind for future possibilities regarding complications and new features. The first question that came up after the new base caliber was released was simply: what should be the next development? After discussions within the workshop together with my team, we decided that a power reserve indicator was a perfect first complication that was exactly in character with a manual winding wristwatch. The first step was to define the characteristics we wanted to achieve. I felt it was good at this point to add a hacking feature for the seconds, and to design the power reserve in an unusual way so that it could actually be seen by the user; normally this is impossible to see inside the movement. However, there was one important aspect that I wanted to design which is harder to describe: the limiting of the power reserve to the period of the best torque of the mainspring. When you finish winding any watch, there will be a certain amount of power reserve built up in the mainspring. However, the hours at the end of the reserve period will not be optimal for the best chronometric results. My solution is taken from the best examples from the past: a Maltese cross construction on the winding barrel limits the power reserve to only supply slightly more than 2 days of optimal power out of 65 hours of torque to the movement. So said, so done, and the new mechanical design was worked out, requiring the production of some 70 new movement parts. As a final flourish, new dial design was created for this timepiece, with framed sub-dials and a new guilloché pattern.”
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Technical characteristics:  
Voutilainen V-8R

• Unique, in house designed movement with power reserve, hours, minutes and seconds
  
  
• New direct impulse escapement with two escapement wheels
  
• Hacking mechanism (stops seconds’ hand during time setting)
  
• Visible power reserve mechanism with cone system
  
• Power reserve: Maltese cross system on barrel, in order to limit power reserve to the optimal torque supplied during 49 hours (full power reserve is 65 hours)

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• Movement: 
• 30mm x 5.60mm, 4N gold plated German silver main plate and bridges, 228 components
  
• Wheels made of rose gold
  
• Jewels: 28
  
• Free sprung balance (wheel diameter 13.60mm) with Grossman interior curve and Philips exterior curve, beating at 18,000 vph
  
  
• Dial: silver, engine turned by hand, applied indexes and numerals in goldbr>
  
• Hands: gold and steel, hand made
  
• All manufacturing, construction, fabrication, hand finishing and assembly in the Voutilainen workshop
  
  
• Case: 39.00mm x 11.40mm
  
• Sapphire glass front and back, with anti reflection treatment
  
• Available in platinum, 18k red or white gold with matching tang buckle and
  
• alligator strap.
  
  
• Limited edition of 25 pieces worldwide

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Technical characteristics:

Reference: 28-R

Movement: Manual-winding mechanical

Power reserve: 49 h, 18000 variations / hours

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Power reserve, Seconds

Year: 2013

Collection: V-8R / Limited Edition to 25 exemplaires

Waterproofness: 30 m

Size: ø 39 mm

Thickness: 11.4 mm

Case: Red gold

Bracelet strap: Leather alligator

Buckle: Pin buckle

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www.Voutilainen.ch