It’s raining bling! Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henri Bennahmias isn’t holding again earlier than his impending departure from the model in 2023. As an alternative, true to his persona, he’s upping the ante for the This autumn celebrations of the Royal Oak’s fiftieth anniversary with a flashy lineup of 20 Royal Oak Selfwinding Rainbow items (10 in 41 mm and 10 in 37 mm) totally set—from the dial to the bezel to the case to the bracelet—in emeralds, rubies, tourmalines, tanzanites, tsavorites, chrysoberyls and spessartites. In contrast to different “rainbow” watches, these are organized in monochrome settings corresponding to a completely yellow chrysoberyl-set model to 1 wearing strong rubies.

Every 41 mm watch is outfitted in 861 stones (between 30 and 47 carats) and every 37 mm mannequin is accented with 790 stones (between 21 to 37 carats)—an unbelievable feat when you think about how exhausting it’s to seek out that many stones of matching coloration, readability, high quality and dimension. In truth, the method was such a problem it took a whole yr. The gem-setting was orchestrated by Pierre Salanitro, a longtime AP collaborator who is mostly thought to be the grasp of his explicit career in Switzerland.

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Including to the issue in setting the variations of stones is that every watch needed to be adjusted based on the typology, hardness and different specifics based on the make-up of every sort of stone. The baguette stones had been additionally lower in 179 completely different sizes for the 41 mm model and 153 completely different sizes for the 37 mm iteration earlier than being hand-polished.

To ensure the stones coated as a lot floor as doable, Audemars Piguet and Salanitro organized them in an invisible setting—a jewellery approach through which as little metallic as doable is revealed across the gems to offer the looks that they’re floating—on the dial and bracelet hyperlinks. To realize this, tiny grooves had been lower into the 18-karat white gold instances with the stones connected inside by way of hidden rails mounted within the metallic. This type of setting is notoriously tough and solely 10 out of 80 artisans at Salanitro’s studio are capable of full the duty. They labored for a month and a half on the setting alone for every set.

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The AP’s Royal Oak Selfwinding Rainbows comprise the caliber 4309 for the 41 mm model—the newest self-winding hours, minutes and seconds motion on this diameter—and the Caliber 5909 for the 37 mm mannequin. The 5909 is predicated on the Caliber 5900, which first appeared this yr in different Royal Oaks of the identical case dimension. Like different fiftieth anniversary editions, these will even include a 22-carat pink gold oscillating rotor that spells out “50 years.” The Audemars Piguet brand and “Swiss Made” label have been cautiously printed on the sapphire crystal in order to not intervene with the gems.

Evidently, nonetheless, these watches are something however discreet. You gained’t must see a brand to know that these are AP Royal Oaks from a distance and the entire added high-end adornment ensures they are often noticed fairly simply from throughout a room. Think about hiring a bodyguard along with your buy.

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