It’s certainly been a busy week for Audemars Piguet with the brand announcing a slew of new releases, including fresh frosted-gold and gem-set Royal Oaks as well as a new Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Extra-Thin 37mm.
One of the watchmaker’s stand-out novelties, though, has to be its latest Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked – not least because it sees the Le Brassus-based outfit premiere a brand-new precious metal for this model’s 41mm case and integrated bracelet: sand gold.
So named by Audemars Piguet because of how its hue evokes sand dunes in the sunlight, sand gold is a newly-developed 18k gold alloy which blends gold with copper and palladium. The result is an intriguing tone that, depending on the angle and light in which you view it, switches between the appearance of white and pink gold.
Distinct Appearance
In watchmaking, it’s rare to find cases and bracelets made in 24k gold, not least because this pure material is too soft for everyday wear. Typically, 18k gold alloys – comprising 75 per cent gold and 25 per cent copper, silver, nickel and/or palladium – are used, because of the increased hardness and resistance they offer.
The addition of these other metals also confers a distinct appearance to the alloy that may be a warm yellow, a deep red or a silvery white depending on the amount and type of metal added.
Traditionally, most watchmakers work with 18k red, pink, white or yellow gold but in recent decades we’ve seen a number of brands conjure their own proprietary alloys: For example, Rolex’s Everose Gold, Omega’s Sedna Gold and Moonshine™ Gold, Hublot’s King Gold and Magic Gold, and IWC Schaffhausen’s Hard Gold. With sand gold, Audemars Piguet is playing its part in opening up new horizons in terms of watchmaking case materials.
What’s more, by being the first brand to deploy sand gold on one of its watches – a Royal Oak no less – Audemars Piguet is also building on its rich history of making gold timepieces. Indeed, while the launch of the Royal Oak in 1972 helped make a luxury watch material of stainless steel, the company points out that from 1979 going into the following decade, nearly three-quarters of the Royal Oaks it produced were made partly or entirely from gold.
Matching Hue
And so to the new Royal Oak in question: Audemars Piguet has selected its Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked as the first vehicle to showcase the eye-catching properties of sand gold.
Initially released in stainless steel in 2022 to celebrate the Royal Oak’s 50th anniversary, the Flying Tourbillon Openworked houses the brand’s Calibre 2972 whose spectacular multi-layered, pared-down architecture steals the show both dial side and through the display back.
To match the watch’s new sand gold case and bracelet – which feature AP’s trademark brushed and polished finishes – the movement’s skeletonised bridges and mainplate have been galvanically treated to bear a sand-gold-coloured hue.
That subtly gilded backdrop helps to set off rhodium-treated elements like the openworked barrel, geartrain and flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock, in addition to lume-filled white-gold hour markers and hands.
Finally, as you would expect, the decoration afforded on this type of Royal Oak movement is spot-on, with polished bevels – even on a number of sharp internal angles – complemented by straight and circular grained finishes, as well as snailing.
