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Audemars Piguet has much to celebrate: New world record, new flying tourbillon and the Royal Oak Offshore’s 25th anniversary
AUDEMARS PIGUET OFFERS a stunning assortment of novelties this year to cater to different needs of its wide-ranging clientele. Topping the list are three new watches with unprecedented features: Royal Oak RD#2, Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph and Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon.
The headline act, Royal Oak RD#2, is the world’s thinnest self-winding perpetual calendar. Measuring just 6.30mm ( 2mm slimmer than the Royal Oak Extra-thin Jumbo), it is driven by a new ultra-thin (2.89mm) automatic 5133 calibre equipped with central rotor. The product of five years of R&D, this watch offers a solution to the challenge surrounding perpetual calendars: How to significantly reduce heft from a typically modular movement, yet pack in the necessary components. Audemars Piguet's solution was to return to the drawing board. By creating a new date wheel with specially constructed teeth and by utilising the dial as a main bridge, it successfully replaced the traditional movement construction of a perpetual calendar from three levels to one.
Meanwhile, the Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph, one of watchmaking’s most powerful icons, has undergone a facelift for its 25th anniversary. Inspired by the Royal Oak Offshore 26388 from 1993, its case now sports a slimmer bezel to accentuate the eight hexagonal screws. These screws in turn highlight eight skeletonised bridges on the exposed movement from which the tourbillon as well as two mainspring barrels can be admired. Offered in a 45mm case in pink gold or stainless steel, each limited to 50 pieces, this runs on the Calibre 2947, an open-worked interpretation of the previous Calibre 2933.
The Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon, which enjoys the privilege of being the first-ever ladies’ Royal Oak Concept timekeeper (since the collection’s debut in 2002), is also the first to feature the manufacture’s new flying tourbillon. Available in two iterations, these models marry the worlds of haute joaillerie and haute horlogerie. Presented in a 38.5mm white gold case adorned with brilliant-cut or invisibly-set baguette-cut diamonds, its skeletonised dial bears diamond-set “icicles” and white lacquered embellishments to reference the wintry landscape of Vallée de Joux, where Audemars Piguet was birthed. Aside from the new flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock, an openworked barrel in the guise of a snowflake at 11 o’clock will get the conversation started.