In honor of the 50th anniversary of innovation in design, Royal Oak has released two unique sets of automatic watches from this collection in a white gold case with a diameter of 37 mm and 41 mm, in which the “traditional” rainbow design gets a new interpretation. Instead of playing with colorful iridescences on one model, the Manufactory presented a completely new look at the rainbow in sets of ten watches: each piece is completely decorated with precious stones of bright red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink or orange colors so that the models of the set form a bright rainbow.
The search for suitable stones, colors and contrasts, while strictly observing Audemars Piguet’s requirements for color, purity and quality, has become an important stage in creating rainbow exclusive sets. This is by no means an easy task, when for one watch in a single shade you need to choose 861 stones (with a total weight of ~ 30 to ~ 47 carats) for 41mm versions or 790 stones (from ~ 21 to ~37 carats) for models with a diameter of 37mm.
The three “kings” in the world of precious stones — ruby, emerald and blue sapphire – dominate the gradation of shades. In addition to their rich colors, gemologists and designers of the Manufactory have selected several other stones that are rarely used in High Watchmaking. Tanzanite, yellow chrysoberyl, pink tourmaline, amethyst, blue topaz, orange spessartine and tsavorite, the bright colors and purity of which made it possible to create an expressive and harmonious rainbow from the assembled watches. These ten watches tell ten different stories, each of which is associated with a unique property, color and value of the corresponding gemstone.
In these sets, presented in two sizes, we have abandoned the usual approaches to create an original rainbow of ten bold models, each of which is decorated with colored precious stones. We have selected some of the purest and most colorful stones in the world, including emerald, ruby, tourmaline, tanzanite, tsavorite, chrysoberyl and spessartine. It was not an easy task, because we had to find about 800 stones of exactly the same color and the highest quality for each watch.
Natalie Barzilei
Chief Gemologist Audemars Piguet
Each stone (of which there are 179 different sizes for models with a diameter of 41 mm and 153 for models with a diameter of 37 mm) undergoes an individual baguette cut, taking into account the architecture of the case, bracelet and dial of the Royal Oak watch, after which it is polished manually, forming clear, sharply defined angles.
To give the colored stones more space, the Manufactory applied a sophisticated invisible fastening technique on the dial, case and links of the bracelet. Miniature grooves were cut into the stones to secure them in a secret channel prepared in the golden surface. This fastening gives the impression that the stones are holding on by themselves.
The decoration of the dial, created using the invisible fastening technique, reflects the highest technical level of these watches: the thinnest gold plate is covered with 152 baguette-cut stones in 30 different sizes for 37mm watches and in 28 sizes for the 41mm version. To further emphasize the stones, the dial has no hour markers, and the Audemars Piguet logo and the inscription “Swiss made” are elegantly applied to the watch glass with white or black decal paint.
To ensure that the stone decoration on the dial is presented most effectively, the 37mm and 41mm watches are powered by automatic mechanisms with indication of hours, minutes and seconds without a date – Caliber 5909 and Caliber 4309, respectively.
In its history, Audemars Piguet has often installed its watch movements in unique jewelry cases sparkling with diamonds and colored precious stones, in partnership with such prestigious jewelry brands as Tiffany, Cartier, Oscar Heyman and Bvlgari. One of the outstanding examples is the Tutti Frutti watch, sold in 1929, which was powered by the smallest caliber ever produced by the Manufactory, the 5/7SB caliber. The exterior design of this unique watch, which uses diamonds, emeralds, rubies, as well as blue and yellow sapphires, was developed by the Parisian jewelry company Egouvillon Lafon & Cie Paris (Audemars Piguet Heritage collection, inv. No. 1378).
The 1960s and 1970s were marked by the advent of bold and original watches with dials made of natural stones. Such dials, made of tiger’s eye, lapis lazuli, aventurine, grossular, opal, onyx, ruby, amethyst, jasper and other stones, are presented in the Audemars Piguet catalogues, sometimes in combination with the decoration of other precious stones on the case and bracelet.
In the 1980s, with the advent of fashion for watch bracelets with soldered links, Audemars Piguet decided to open its jewelry workshop to create original watches with precious stones, which led to the appearance of the Haute Joaillerie collection in 2013.
Audemars Piguet’s spectacular gemstone creations are far from limited to these unique examples of Fine Jewelry and still appear in various collections of the brand. In some watches, the decoration of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, amethysts or rainbow-colored stones adorns only the bezel, while other models are completely covered with diamonds or colored stones, creating unique iridescent effects and contrasts.
Source: https://www.audemarspiguet.com/com/ru/news/savoir-faire/royal-oak-selfwinding-rainbow.html
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