Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Volcano Navy (26170ST.OO.D305CR.01)

The strength of a tradition lies as much in its innate wealth as in its ability to evolve and be reinvented. Audemars Piguet vividly confirms this truth by presenting the new Openworked self-winding Royal Oak. While openworking or skeletonising movements represents a blend of time-honoured artistry and traditions, the Manufacture in Le Brassus is offering a contemporary take on this craft in a model that goes firmly against the trend of classic skeleton models. It lays bold claim both to absolute mastery of this art, and to unbridled creativity.

Carefully mastered creativity

The resolutely contemporary Openworked self-winding Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet draws its strength from an authentic alliance between traditional and modern elements. Representing a unique stylistic exercise, the art of skeletonisation is the exclusive preserve of a handful of watch manufacturers. This distinctive craft calls for a blend of technical and artistic skills : technical, in that skeletonising a movement means preserving its structure so as to maintain its precision and its reliability ; and artistic, in that this openworking of the various parts is accompanied by extremely meticulous decorative work that calls for considerable dexterity and experience. Audemars Piguet has long since been recognised for the exceptional quality of its skeleton movements.
The Manufacture in Le Brassus has distinguished itself on countless occasions in the exercise of this delicate discipline. The new Openworked self-winding Royal Oak is entirely in tune with this approach, even though its movement has been crafted in a very different spirit. This resolutely modern skeleton-type watch reflects a more architectural, more contemporary stylistic evolution. The high-end finishing, featuring understated execution and hand-drawn file strokes, echoes the case surface treatment and the satin-brushed bezel.

A reinvented openworked movement

The creation of this Openworked self-winding Royal Oak stemmed from the simple premise that this sophisticated horological exercise deserved to be reinvented with a blend of audacity and creativity in order to appeal to a new clientele. With this in mind, the work accomplished by Audemars Piguet in developing the new Calibre 3129 driving the Openworked self-winding Royal Oak was clearly based on a decision to break with traditions, leading to a model featuring pure and contemporary lines that set it apart from traditional skeletonised models, and sublimate the Royal Oak collection for which it was designed.
This approach is expressed through restrained, pure cut-outs, straight satin-brushing on the mainplate and on the bridges, and an intensification of colours, contrasts and shades achieved by entirely hand-crafted bevelling. The palette of colours ranges from grey to anthracite - an elegantly understated shade achieved by an anthracite galvanic surface treatment. These dominant grey hues make a fine contrast with the colour of the gilt brass gear trains and that of the 22-carat solid gold oscillating weight, which is also openworked and stamped with the AP monogram. This new all grey-clad self-winding Calibre 3129 is also magnificently highlighted by the 39 mm-diameter case housing it and featuring a transparent back, as well as an entirely openworked anthracite dial with applied and facetted gold hour-markers.

An exceptionally high-quality base movement

While Calibre 3129 is a decidedly high-end openworked creation, it also owes its outstanding nature to the quality and reliability of the base movement from which it stems, Audemars Piguet Calibre 3120 - a mechanical self-winding movement entirely designed, developed and by the Manufacture Audemars Piguet. Its excellent reliability and the constant enhancements it incorporates mean it is used across the entire range of collections, from the classic Jules Audemars models to the sportier Royal Oak watches. The technical characteristics of the 253-part Calibre 3129, which drives displays of the hours, minutes and central seconds, include its cross-through balancebridge ensuring exceptional shock-resistance and its direct drive seconds hand that avoids any jerking. The rating accuracy is particularly stable thanks to the use of a variable-inertia balance fitted with eight inertia-blocks. In terms of user-friendliness, Calibre 3129 also has a stop-seconds function that facilitates time-setting, as well as 60-hour power reserve.

Available in two versions - steel case on a steel bracelet complete with matching folding clasp ; or 18-carat pink gold on an alligator leather strap with pink gold folding clasp - the new Openworked self-winding Royal Oak is a vivid new demonstration of the absolute mastery of skeletonisation faithfully cultivated by Audemars Piguet. A fascinating form of stylistic expression proudly perpetuated and now boldly reinvented by the Manufacture from Le Brassus.