EGN NEWS DESK
Audemars Piguet’s exploration of camouflage motifs started in 2018 with the Royal Oak Offshore fashions that includes rubber straps. This yr, the motif has been reimagined via the intricate artwork of gemsetting, demonstrating the model’s dedication to avant-garde aesthetics and pioneering spirit. Each of the 2 new fashions is adorned with a definite palette: one with graded blue sapphires and Swiss blue topaz totalling roughly 44.32 carats, and the opposite with black sapphires, numerous shades of tsavorites, and smoky quartz totalling round 39.91 carats.
The choice and association of those gems concerned a rigorous high quality management course of to satisfy Audemars Piguet’s stringent requirements for color, readability, and general concord. Each stone’s purity and gemological nature had been verified by an exterior laboratory, guaranteeing the utmost high quality and brilliance. This meticulous consideration to element is obvious in each side of the design, from the architectural precision of the lower stones to their seamless integration into the watch’s construction.
The craftsmanship extends to the usage of the intricate method often called invisible setting, employed for the dial, bracelet hyperlinks, and sure case parts. This method includes carving tiny grooves into the baguette gems, that are then fastidiously snapped right into a hidden rail throughout the gold part, creating the phantasm that the stones are self-supporting. Achieving excellent alignment and symmetry is a painstaking job that requires distinctive talent and precision. The dial alone options 152 gems lower in 28 completely different sizes, set towards a gold plate skinny sufficient to spotlight their brilliance with out overshadowing the gemsetting artistry.
Powered by the latest-generation Calibre 4309, these timepieces embody the fusion of technical excellence and aesthetic innovation. The self-winding motion, developed particularly for this diameter, omits the date indication to prioritize the gemsetting on the dial. Its stability and precision are ensured by a patented mechanism, whereas a beneficiant 70-hour energy reserve caters to up to date existence. The motion’s rhodium-toned 22-carat pink gold oscillating weight and Haute Horlogerie decorations, similar to Côtes de Genève and polished chamfers, might be admired via the sapphire casebacks, showcasing the intricate workmanship beneath the floor.
Audemars Piguet’s legacy in high-jewellery timepieces dates again to collaborations with prestigious manufacturers like Tiffany, Cartier, Oscar Heyman, and Bvlgari, which concerned casing actions in distinctive Haute Joaillerie creations. From the late nineteenth century till the Nineteen Seventies, the model often offered actions and dials to jewellers who designed and signed the exterior watch circumstances earlier than promoting them via their networks. The Sixties and Nineteen Seventies marked an period of inventive exploration, with watches that includes pure stone dials mixed with different gems on the case and bracelet.
In the Nineteen Eighties, the development for watches with welded bracelets led Audemars Piguet to ascertain its personal jewelry workshop, permitting for larger management and creativity in gemset timepieces. This in-house experience paved the best way for the Haute Joaillerie assortment launched in 2013, which incorporates distinctive items just like the Diamond Trilogy and the Sapphire Orbe, breaking conventional notions of gemset watches and showcasing the model’s creative ingenuity.
Today, gemsetting permeates Audemars Piguet’s collections, from bezels adorned with an array of valuable stones to timepieces fully paved with diamonds or colored gems. The 2022 Royal Oak Selfwinding Rainbow Sets exemplify this development, that includes ten white gold timepieces every set with a special baguette-cut colored gemstone, forming a fascinating rainbow when positioned aspect by aspect.
