Audemars Piguet
Introducing the Hand-Finished White Ceramic Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar
See it on the brand’s website, here.
SIHH 2017 was when AP announced the all black ceramic version of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, and needless to say, it was all that we could really talk about at the fair that year.
The primary challenge with an all-black Royal Oak, as it was explained to us by the one and only Giulio Papi saying, “Never mind the challenge of creating a fully ceramic watch, imagine what we had to put ourselves through to find the right shade of black to color our ceramic with. It had to be the right color; it had to be perfect color.”
Here’s then how the AP team rose to the challenge: says Giulio, “Ceramic, while it has hard, is also brittle and can shatter. So, what you have in this watch isn’t 100% ceramic, but a composite of ceramic and metal. It’s not on the surface of the watch, but it is in there in its core.
“If the watch was in fact a 100% ceramic, then: 1) it would not be as hardy as it is; we would’ve been unable to satin polish and bevel the watch. It would just shatter at that kind of stress. And 2) it wouldn’t have been as light and comfortable to wear, because as you know, this much ceramic to produce an entire watch would’ve resulted in a really heavy watch.”
Movement
Self-winding Calibre 5134; perpetual calendar with week indication, day, date, astronomical moon, month, leap year, hours and minutes; 40-hour power reserve
Case
41mm white ceramic; water resistant to 20m
Strap
White ceramic bracelet with titanium AP folding clasp
Price: CHF94,300[/td_block_text_with_title]
Also, Introducing the Production Version of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin
But wait there’s more. SIHH 2018, the announcement of the Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin. Won’t go into too many details, but you can have a read of this extensive article on the watch here.
The watch represented groundbreaking sexy, it was groundbreaking watchmaking, it was groundbreaking all round for AP, but where it proved heartbreaking is that the RD#2 was just a prototype. That is until now.
The most obvious departure here comes in the form of the non-Tapisserie dial, what we have instead is a satin blue surface. The less obvious, but bigger, change with the production piece is that where the RD#2 was all platinum, now the watch is a mix of titanium and platinum.
What remains verbatim from the RD#2 is of course that technical mastery that is the watch’s movement, the Calibre 5513.
Price is listed at CHF140,000 and it’s said that about 100 will be produced within 2019.
Movement
Self-winding Calibre 5513; perpetual calendar with day, date, astronomical moon, month, leap year, hours and minutes; 40-hour power reserve
Case
42mm titanium with platinum bezel; water resistant to 20m
Strap
Titanium bracelet with platinum links and titanium AP folding clasp
Price: CHF140,000[/td_block_text_with_title]