Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Sand Gold

The beautiful monochrome Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworkeddebuted in a stainless steel case in 2022 as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Royal Oak. This watch was equipped with the latest Audemars Piguet 2972 Caliber, an evolution of the 2950 Caliber introduced in 2018 in the Code 11.59 collection.

Audemars Piguet has unveiled its first watch made of sand gold, a new 18-carat gold alloy whose color changes depending on the angle and lighting. This new precious material, combining gold with copper and palladium, is first introduced with the release of the new Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked watch in size 41 mm 26735SG.

Given that pure gold is incredibly soft, it must first be combined with other metals before it becomes a suitable material for making a watch case, and this has led countless luxury goods manufacturers to release their own branded gold blends. The latest novelty in this field is Audemars Piguet Sand Gold, and it’s a special type of 18—carat gold known as “sand gold,” which is somewhere between pink and white gold, with a hue that varies depending on the lighting.

To present its new sand gold alloy, the Swiss manufacturer announced the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked watch, which has a case and bracelet made entirely of sand gold, as well as the corresponding electroplating applied to the skeletonized bridges of its movement.

In addition to the new sand gold alloy used for its components, the new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked ref. The 26735SG.OO.1320SG.01 is essentially the same watch as the stainless steel version first released in 2022. The 41mm sand gold case, 10.6mm thick, is framed by Royal Oak’s signature octagonal bezel, which is secured with eight white gold screws.

The signed crown is at 3 o’clock, and a pair of flat sapphire crystals are mounted on the watch face and on the back cover. The model provides water resistance up to 50 meters. Although Audemars Piguet creates versions of its watches with straps, the whole point of this release is to showcase the brand’s new alloy, and therefore it features the famous integrated Royal Oak bracelet, made entirely of sand gold to match the case.

Audemars Piguet sand gold is an 18 carat alloy, which means that 75% of it consists of pure gold. Copper and palladium are also used in the alloy to give it a warm color and resistance to discoloration, and the material’s name comes from the appearance of sand dunes in the sun. Most branded rose gold alloys aim to achieve a rich, warm color, although the goal of sand gold is to achieve the opposite effect, where the material does not look like bright copper, but like pink and white gold.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked sand gold watch uses the same skeletonized 2972 automatic movement found inside the stainless steel model, which operates at a frequency of 21,600 half-vibrations per hour (3 Hz) and has a power reserve of about 65 hours. However, unlike the version of this mechanism that is mounted on its stainless steel counterpart, the 2972 caliber plates and bridges used for this new sand-gold version have received the appropriate sand-gold electroplating. In contrast to the warm shade of the bridges, there are rhodium-plated components, and although the rotor mounted on the mechanism is made of 22-carat rose gold, it has also received a rhodium coating to further approximate the two-tone appearance of the Caliber.

Because the Audemars Piguet “Openworked” models feature skeletonized mechanisms, the new sand-gold Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked does not have a dial, except for a sand-gold hour-marker ring, which features overlaid white gold hour markers and a printed minute scale. A large floating tourbillon is located in the lower half of the dial.

The hour and minute hands are located in the center of the mechanism. They are decorated with thin luminous inserts corresponding to the hour markers. The Caliber’s architecture creates a largely symmetrical look, and since there is no dial to accommodate the brand’s logo, the “Audemars Piguet” inscription is printed in black on the anti-reflective sapphire crystal at 12 o’clock.

The architecture of this mechanism is revealed by removing the maximum amount of material from the base plate and bridges using CNC machining, and then improved using electroerosion processing (EDM). The floating 6 o’clock tourbillon is seamlessly integrated into the architectural design.

Delving into the intricacies of the openwork mechanism, you can see the careful finish, made to the highest standards. From satin to circular and solar guilloche, snails, polished chamfers, vertical and horizontal grinding, polished chamfers and polished V-shaped corners.

The new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked 18-carat sand gold watch ref. 26735SG.OO.1320SG.01 costs approximately $285,000. Made from an innovative sand gold alloy, the Royal Oak bracelet displays a typical combination of matte and polished surfaces; it features an AP folding clasp.

The sand gold novelty is not available in a limited edition. Currently, rose gold plays a fairly prominent role in the modern Audemars Piguet line, and it will be interesting to see if sand gold will gradually replace rose gold, or if the brand decides to keep this signature 18K gold alloy as a premium option that appears only in select models.

Technical Characteristics of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked Sand Gold

41 x 10.6 mm, sand gold alloy case, brushed with polished accents, octagonal bezel with 8 white gold screws, anti-reflective sapphire crystal front and back, 50 m water resistant