Words: Jonathan Wells
You can always count on Audemars Piguet to have something impressive up their sleeves — and this svelte new Royal Oak Self-winding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin is no exception.
Quietly taking the title of the world’s thinnest automatic perpetual calendar, this latest release is an evolution of the RD#2 prototype the brand exhibited at SIHH 2018 — with both watches owing their lean looks to the same series of pioneering, patented innovations developed in-house at the Maison.
And Audemars Piguet, never one to rest on its bezels, has made a few changes since SIHH. This Royal Oak has been refined and redesigned in the past year — with titanium and platinum delivering a watch that is both ultra-thin and ultra-light.
It’s a multi-metal approach that also offers a pleasing contrast between polished and brushed, an effect that stretches the length of the integrated bracelet. And a new blue satin finish dial also boosts legibility; an important development for a watch that tells not only the time, but also the day, date, month, leap year and astronomical moon phase.
Of course, the Swiss brand has been condensing good things into small packages for decades — in 1921, it launched the thinnest pocket watch ever created. So, even if you miss out on this latest limited-run boutique exclusive, there’ll always be the next launch from Audemars Piguet. And, with watches this thin, there’s still plenty of room for surprises up those sleeves.
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