Replica Wholesale Center Best of SIHH: Hands-On with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar

Luckily, it isn’t all teary-eyed past-reviving that’s happening at this anniversary — kudos to AP for it. Therefore, together with the re-edition Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph, we see the Introduction of the new Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph, specifically Ref. 26421ST and 26421OR, that possess an entirely new design in two instance materials.Based on two before Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph watches, specifically the Ref. 26388PO (see our hands on with it) and 26288OR, these fresh Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph watches come in stainless steel and 18k rose gold and feature a new case design that has a thinner bezel and hence a more open dial. Nevertheless, the identifying Royal Oak Offshore design traits are all intact. The 45mm case is still angular, the bezel remains octagonal, and there is no lost those exposed hexagonal screws on the bezel. Water resistance is also 100m. On the dial, an individual can observe the vulnerable motion and the tourbillon in 9 o’clock. Opposite the tourbillon at 3 o’clock is your 30-minute counter to get the chronograph. Also clearly visible are the two mainspring barrels. The skeletonized bridges stretch from each of the eight screws in a way that’s rather unique and ties the design of this case, dial, and movement together in a way few watches manage to perform so.These watches are powered by the in-house hand-wound Caliber 2947, which is an open-worked version of this Caliber 2933 found in the Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph Ref. This particular movement comprises 338 components, an integrated chronograph movement which has a column wheel mechanism, a heartbeat speed of 3Hz, and a power reserve of a whopping 237 hours. Royal Oak Offshore fanatics are certainly eager to know the prices, and we’ll update the article once we can confirm. Each Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph 25th Anniversary version is limited to 50 pieces.

Historically a favourite complication of Audemars Piguet, the perpetual calendar was the centrepiece of the brand’s SIHH 2018 line-up with the Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar, now the world’s thinnest.

Just 6.3mm high (in the Royal Oak case at that; perhaps slimmer in a round, knife edge case), with the movement thickness 2.89mm, the Royal Oak RD#2 is the slimmest perpetual calendar on the market by quite some margin.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual 4

Most slim perpetual calendar watches hover around the 8mm mark, case and all. The Vacheron Overseas Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar is 8.1mm, while the Patek Philippe ref. 5940 is 8.48mm.

AP’s representatives repeated several times the cal. 5133 inside the RD#2 was akin to turning a three-storey house into a single floor, though technical specifics were short.

Rather than a revamp of the fundamentals of the perpetual calendar, the movement’s constructors slimmed and simplified each part of the movement, while laying out the calendar display in the most mechanically concise manner possible. The cal. 5133 is made up of 256 parts, compared to 374 parts in AP’s cal. 5134, or the 275 in Patek Philippe’s cal. 240Q.

That also means some of the calendar mechanism is spread out, rather than stacked up, explaining the relatively large 32mm, or 14 3/4 lignes, diameter of the movement. That’s quite a bit larger than the conventionally constructed and thicker AP cal. 5134 that’s 29mm, or 12 3/4 lignes, wide.

The automatic base of the cal. 5133 is derived from the cal. 2120, the longstanding thin movement found in the Royal Oak “Jumbo”. Highly regarded as a sophisticated construction that has remained in production for over 50 years, the movement was originally the Jaeger-LeCoultre cal. 920 and also supplied to Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. One of the most distinctive features taken from the cal. 2120 is the support ring for the rotor to minimise wobbling and stress on the short pivot.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual 2

Like the cal. 2120, the cal. 5133 also minimises the components needed on the dial-side of the movement, utilising a hanging barrel for instance. That means the dial also serves as a main plate of sorts, helping to secure the parts in place.

Despite the significant technical advances inside the watch, the outside looks and feels very much like a classic Royal Oak, meaning it’s angular, refined and sharply finished. It is a departure from the aggressively styling of AP’s other concept watches, the Royal Oak Supersonnerie and Laptimer Michael Schumacher.

AP Royal Oak #RD2 perpetual calendar 2

The case is 41mm in diameter, but hefty despite being slim, due to the platinum case and bracelet. And though it’s almost a quarter thinner than the ordinary Royal Oak perpetual calendar, the decrease in height is not dramatically obvious on the wrist, perhaps because the watch was already thin to start with.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual 3

The dial is typical Royal Oak, dark blue with a chequerboard tapisserie guilloche. A casual observer would be hard pressed to distinguish between the RD#2 and an ordinary perpetual, though the differences are obvious, most prominently with the raised position of the sub-dials at three and nine.

AP Royal Oak #RD2 perpetual calendar 3

AP Royal Oak #RD2 perpetual calendar 1

Price and availability

The Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar (ref. 26586PT.OO.1240PT.01) is still a concept watch, with pricing and availability yet to be announced.