The Return to Yellow Gold

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was launched in 1972 with the strapline “first luxury watch in steel”. In the intervening 44 years there have been iterations in all the noble metals, as well as forays into carbon, alacrite, bronze, rubber, ceramic, titanium and tantalum. It is now leaving all these detours and diversions behind and returning to the most elementary and perennial of all the precious metals: yellow gold. The new Royal Oak PerpetuaL Calendar is a classic in the fullest sense of the term. Inspired by a 1984 model, it encloses the calibre 5134 automatic movement, which has been resized to fit perfectly inside the 41mm case. The dial, decorated with a geometric ‘Grande Tapisserie’ motif, shows the day, month and date at 9, 12 and 3 o’clock respectively, leap years at 12 o’clock, astronomical moon phase at 6 o’clock and week of the year on the external ring. It’s a return to the classics, which Audemars Piguet is marketing as a “bold and visionary” departure. Time will tell.

Source: Europa Star December/January 2016 Magazine Issue