The new creations in the Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet and Royal Oak collections carry a strong message, embodied by Serena Williams, the Manufacture’s ambassador and a woman who asserts herself without compromise and with passion...
Over the last 20 years, Serena Williams has had a lasting positive influence in sports, fashion and the cultural world at large. More than a Tennis Champion, she is an entrepreneur, a designer, a changemaker, a mother and an enduring brand ambassador. Her unrelenting drive, passion and rule-breaking spirit, which strongly resonate with Audemars Piguet’s values, have enabled her to reach exceptional milestones in her career, while inspiring people worldwide.
The Manufacture’s watchmakers have created a new Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet, inspired by the special quality of light in Le Brassus. There are 1,085 precious stones (4.99 carats), adorning the dial, the architectural case, the lugs and the fluted crown of this 41 mm timepiece, available in 18-carat white or pink gold. Around the periphery of the dial, the inner bezel displays a graduated, five by five, minute scale. Thanks to this refined timepiece, each movement of the wrist flashes with diamond brilliance.
A freedom-loving, avant-garde icon, the Royal Oak has been dressed in innovative materials and adopted almost all complications – large and small – since the launch of the first women's Royal Oak designed by Jacqueline Dimier in 1976.
This year, Audemars Piguet once again combines its savoir-faire with the imagination of Florentine jewellery designer Carolina Bucci, creator of the alluring Frosted Gold finish launched on Royal Oak models in 2016, to create a 34 mm Royal Oak Selfwinding special edition.
Limited to 300 pieces, this black ceramic watch reveals a multicoloured dial refracting light like a prism’s rainbow in the dark of night.
To obtain this shimmering Tapisserie effect, small squares have been drawn onto the surface of a sapphire disc through micro-structuring. The mirror effect is created by a metallising process applied onto the back of the sapphire plate, bringing out the reflections and colours.
This is the first time Audemars Piguet has used this technique that makes each dial a unique creation since the distribution of iridescent colours varies from one dial to the next. Giving free expression to the play of colours, the Audemars Piguet signature appears discreetly in white transfer. The luminescent pink gold hands display hours, minutes and seconds and the pink gold hour-markers echo the eight screws of the legendary octagonal bezel.
I wanted to place a rainbow in the most unexpected of places, a little like when you see oil floating on a puddle in a city street… So here you have every colour of the spectrum on a canvas that is completely black, which is itself the absence of colour.
Carolina Bucci
Jewellery Designer
The latest 37 mm Royal Oak Selfwinding timepiece enriches the case, bracelet and dial design evolution seen across the 37 mm collection this year, with a diamond-set bezel and a new khaki green hue for its Grande Tapisserie dial.
As the other Royal Oak “anniversary” models, this timepiece is fitted with the dedicated oscillating weight in 22-carat gold that features the “50-years” logo and the engraved Audemars Piguet signature.
?size=1071,515&fmt=avif-alpha&dpr=off){kind=logo}
