Audemars Piguet revealed its first 41 mm Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Self-Winding Chronograph entirely crafted in black ceramic with contrasting pink gold accents appearing on the dial. Each ceramic component is pre-polished and pre-satin-brushed prior to being finished by hand, culminating in polished chamfers juxtaposed with Audemars Piguet’s trademark satin-brushed and polished surfaces.
The black dial features a Grande Tapisserie pattern and matching counters with fine pink-gold-toned threads. Additional pink gold highlights, including applied hour-markers, Royal Oak hands and the Audemars Piguet signature, deliver eye-catching contrast.
To celebrate the Royal Oak’s 50th anniversary, this new 41 mm Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph housed in black ceramic features the collection’s new evolutionary dial design. The artisans have harmonized the size of the luminescent facetted hour-markers and the hands while preserving their aesthetics. The logo has been reworked. A gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Self-Winding signature endowed with a unique topography now replaces the applied AP monogram and the printed “AUDEMARS PIGUET” at 12 o’clock. The embossed signature decorating the new Royal Oak “anniversary” models is made of thin layers of 24-carat gold. Each letter is connected with links approximately the size of a hair and placed on the dial by hand with tiny legs almost invisible to the naked eye.
By increasing the size of the small seconds display, all three counters feature the same diameter, augmenting readability. The central sweep seconds hand features a new style of counterweight encompassing a new trapezoidal openworked profile.
The pins connecting the links to the studs of the black ceramic bracelet are no longer visible on the sides, but fitted directly into the studs.
This new version of the 41 mm Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph is fitted with a dedicated anniversary openworked oscillating weight in blackened 22-carat gold, which features the “50-years” logo and the engraved Audemars Piguet signature. The oscillating weight has been darkened in order to match the color of the case.
At the heart of each reference is the Manufacture’s latest generation chronograph movement, the selfwinding Calibre 4401. It is fully integrated and features a column wheel and a flyback function. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Self-Winding flyback function allows the wearer to stop, reset and start the chronograph in one simple action. The column wheel works in collaboration with a vertical clutch system. When starting or stopping the chronograph, the hands respond accordingly without any jumping. The push-pieces feel smooth when pressed. A patented zero resetting mechanism ensures that each one of the counter hands instantaneously resets to zero.
