Two Royal Oaks, in titanium and pink gold, and a white gold Code 11.59 are fitted with the Swiss brand's system for amplifying the sound of the gongs.
Audemars Piguet has been based in Le Brassus, in Switzerland's Vallée de Joux, since 1875, and it remains in the hands of the Audemars and Piguet families who founded it. In 2016 it introduced the Royal Oak Concept Supersonnerie, a minute repeater watch whose acoustic system the brand spent eight years developing with watchmakers, musicians and researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). That same year the watch won the Mechanical Exception prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève. Audemars Piguet, which holds patents on the system, has since fitted it to several watches in the Royal Oak and Code 11.59 collections.
On 2 November, the manufacture announced three new references that use it. Two are 42 mm versions of the Royal Oak Minute Repeater Supersonnerie, one in titanium and one in pink gold, the first time the model has been made in that metal. The third is a white gold version of the Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Minute Repeater Supersonnerie, with a smoked sapphire dial.
How a minute repeater works
A minute repeater sounds the time on demand. Small hammers strike two gongs, steel wires curved around the movement: the low gong counts the hours, both gongs together count the quarters, and the high gong counts the minutes elapsed since the last quarter. At 10:49, for example, the watch strikes ten low notes, three double notes and four high ones. Before electric light, the complication let its owner tell the time in the dark. Making one still requires a watchmaker to tune each gong and set the rhythm of the strikes by hand.
The Supersonnerie system
n a traditional minute repeater the gongs are fixed to the mainplate, the base of the movement, and inside a case as small as a wristwatch's the sound comes out faint. In the Supersonnerie, the gongs are mounted on a membrane that covers the back of the movement and works like the soundboard of a guitar: it vibrates with each strike and amplifies the sound, which leaves the case through fine openings around the edge of the caseback. Audemars Piguet also redesigned the regulator, the part that sets the pace of the strikes, to reduce the buzzing heard during the sequence, and removed the pause that usually falls between the hours and the minutes when no quarters are struck, as at 3:05.
All three watches use the hand-wound Calibre 2953. The membrane sits between the movement and the caseback, and its height adds to that of the calibre in the overall thickness of the watch.
Two 42 mm Royal Oaks
The titanium Royal Oak has a case and integrated bracelet in that metal, with the alternating satin-brushed and polished surfaces that have defined the model since 1972. Its green dial has a sunburst finish, with fine lines radiating from the centre, and darkens towards the edge; the small seconds counter is the same green.
The pink gold Royal Oak has an 18-carat pink gold case and bracelet, and its brown dial carries the Grande Tapisserie pattern, the grid of small raised squares associated with the Royal Oak. The hands and hour markers are pink gold, like the case, and the small seconds counter is brown, like the dial.
The white gold Code 11.59
The Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Minute Repeater Supersonnerie measures 41 mm, a millimetre smaller than the Royal Oaks, and its case middle is fully polished. The dial is a sheet of smoked sapphire with a slight transparency that offers a glimpse of Calibre 2953. The minute track and the rim of the small seconds counter were made by galvanic growth, a technique that builds up metal layer by layer through electrolysis and gives them texture and relief against the sapphire.
Specifications
Royal Oak Minute Repeater Supersonnerie in titanium (26591TI.OO.1252TI.08)
- Case: titanium, 42 mm diameter, 14 mm thick; glareproofed sapphire crystal; screw-down titanium caseback and crown; water-resistant to 20 m.
- Dial: smoked green with satin sunburst finish; green small seconds counter; 18-carat white gold Royal Oak hands; silver-toned 18-carat pink gold hour markers with luminescent material.
- Bracelet: integrated titanium, AP folding clasp.
Royal Oak Minute Repeater Supersonnerie in pink gold (26591OR.OO.1252OR.01)
- Case: 18-carat pink gold, 42 mm diameter, 14 mm thick; glareproofed sapphire crystal; pink gold caseback and crown; water-resistant to 20 m.
- Dial: brown Grande Tapisserie; brown small seconds counter; 18-carat pink gold Royal Oak hands and hour markers with luminescent material.
- Bracelet: integrated 18-carat pink gold, AP folding clasp.
Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Minute Repeater Supersonnerie in white gold (26395BC.OO.D009CR.01)
- Case: 18-carat white gold, 41 mm diameter, 13.6 mm thick; polished case middle; double-curved glareproofed sapphire crystal; caseback with openings forming a resonance chamber; water-resistant to 20 m.
- Dial: smoked sapphire; 18-carat white gold baton hands and hour markers; silver-toned snailed inner bezel.
- Strap: grey alligator, 18-carat white gold AP folding clasp.
Calibre 2953 (all three watches)
- Movement: hand-wound; 30 mm diameter (13 lignes), 6 mm thick; 362 parts, 32 jewels; 3 Hz (21,600 vph); minimum power reserve of 72 hours.
- Functions: Supersonnerie minute repeater, hours, minutes, small seconds.
Pricing and boutiques in Mexico and Spain
Audemars Piguet does not publish prices for these watches on its official website; they are given on request. All three are sold through the brand's boutiques and AP Houses. In Mexico, Audemars Piguet has an AP House in Mexico City, and in Spain it has one in Madrid; both are listed in the store locator on the official website, which also lists those in other countries in the region.
One calibre, three watches
The pink gold Royal Oak pairs the metal of its case and bracelet with the Grande Tapisserie dial, the pattern most closely associated with the model, while the titanium version, with its single-tone green dial, is the more understated of the two. Both have an integrated bracelet and a screwed caseback and, like the Code 11.59, are water-resistant to 20 metres.
On the Code 11.59, the white gold caseback carries the openings that let the sound out and hides the movement, so it is the smoked sapphire dial that shows Calibre 2953.
Ten years after the Royal Oak Concept Supersonnerie, all three watches carry the same membrane Audemars Piguet developed with EPFL, now in titanium, pink gold and white gold.