While we’ve all been on holiday in Australia, the watchmakers in Audemars Piguet’s Le Brassus workshop have been hard at work applying the finishing touches to some of the first new watches of the year – and they haven’t pulled their first punch. Unveiled without pomp or celebration (as has been the Swiss watchmaker’s way in recent years) we have two new references of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon, now available with remarkably intricate carved dials and frosted gold bezels.
Hewn from white and rose gold respectively, this fresh pair of heavy hitters have abandoned the traditional Tapisserie dial pattern for something much more expressive, in doing so continuing to demonstrate the almost inexhaustive versatility of the Royal Oak as a platform or design. While Audemars Piguet describes the dials as having a “dimpled” texture, the quality of the pattern reminds more of wood carving with a rounded chisel than it does the surface of a golf ball, with the inconsistencies of the dial’s surface hinting at the hand-crafted quality of the watchmaker’s higher-end Royal Oak references.
It’s a Royal Oak dial we’ve not seen from Audemars Piguet before, but it’s a welcome new expression from the brand. While not entirely new as a finishing texture, the frosted bezel present on this pair of complicated Royal Oaks is also new in that, as far as I know, it’s the first time we find a frosted gold bezel when the rest of the case and bracelet hasn’t received the same treatment.
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Aside from the luminously coated hands and hour markers, the only other interruption to the wonderfully carved brown and gold dial patterns is the flying tourbillon aperture at 6 o’clock which is the star of the in-house Calibre 2950 show. Containing no less than 270 components and serving up to 65 hours of power reserve, it’s a movement that made its debut back in 2019 in the Code 11.59 collection.
Both the rose gold and white gold references feature 41mm cases that are just 10.6mm thick, which guarantees 50m of water resistance. There is no word from Audemars Piguet as to pricing as yet, but if you’re able to find one of these special Flying Tourbillon Royal Oaks with a carved dial at retail, you should likely expect to pay in excess of $300,000.
