Audemars Piguet
SIHH 2018: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin
Audemars Piguet
SIHH 2018: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin
Speaking as a pathological high-achiever (not that I actually achieve a lot, just that I’m unhealthily fixated on it), it’s difficult enough to make everything work perfectly even once, not to mention consistently. Ultra-thin watchmaking is the closest our industry ever gets to reconciling theory with practice, turning ideals into reality, making the dream work, and all that.
Which brings us to Audemars Piguet’s star of the 2018 SIHH, the Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin, the thinnest automatic perpetual calendar today.
To say that the cal. 5133 is a modular evolution of the cal. 2120 is not really accurate however, since that gives the impression that the 5133–2120 dynamic is a one-sided relationship, with the former taking and the latter giving. The fact is that the cal. 5133 gives as much to the cal. 2120 as it takes.
All in all, the cal. 5133 is an amazing accomplishment, considering the existing cal. 2120 it’s based on is already pretty damn thin as it is, being a record-holder of its own.
Here’s the thing, though. It was only possible to trim down the base calibre because of the additional perpetual calendar components that the cal. 5133 brought into the picture. You couldn’t do it without them — the cal. 2120 would be thin to the point of non-functionality. That’s what I mean when I wrote that the cal. 5133 gives as much to the cal. 2120 as it takes. I want to say something like Together Everyone Achieves More, or Teamwork Makes the Dream Work, or similar inspirational phrase, but I respect your intelligence and taste too much to even go there.
This is not the first time we’ve seen Audemars Piguet flex their extra-thin expertise — the integrated movement-case automatic tourbillon cal. 2870 of 1986 is still on my longlist of watches to acquire one day, through noble or nefarious means. The only problem with the cal. 2870 is that people didn’t know how to take care of it and it didn’t really work out as a viable long-term keeper.
At the end of the day, I think the question we all want to ask is — will this watch get you laid? I mean, l think it will, but let’s see if Audemars Piguet will lend me one for a week to test out my theory and I’ll get back to you.