Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon Titanium

Audemars Piguet has dropped a host of new high-end pieces across its Royal Oak, Code 11.59 and experimental Concept lines, including a number of ceramic first. First up is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon GMT which sees its 44mm sandblasted titanium case topped off with satin-brushed and polished green ceramic bezel, crown and pusher, the first time green ceramic has been used within the Concept line.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon GMT watch’s PVD-black skeleton Calibre 2954 movement features green CVD-treated inserts color-matched to the ceramic elements, while 18K pink gold is used for the hands, logos and crown insert. A green rubber strap completes the look.

The movement includes a second time zone – displayed at the three o’clock position using hour and day/night discs – and crown position indicator for time-setting, neutral and winding. The manually wound watch features a 10 day power reserve. Hypebeast offered an early look at this high impact addition to Audemars Piguet’s Code 11.59 line when the watch ‘leaked’ through the GPHG website after being entered into the Tourbillon category of this year’s awards.

Housed in a comparatively diminutive 41mm 18K white gold case with blue ceramic caseband – a first for the collection – the 50-piece limited edition illustrates why, after so much initial criticism, the Code 11.59 is becoming increasingly difficult to fault.

The openworked Calibre 2948 handwound movement – just 3.65m thick – is constructed in an intricate latticework of layered ‘electric blue’ bridges, colored using Atomic Layered Deposition (ALD). An exercise in aesthetic simplicity, this new Code 11.59 pairs an expansive black onyx dial with an 18K white gold and black ceramic case. The dial is kept stylishly simple, displaying only double-digit five minute intervals in gold, matching the tone of the text, hands and window framing the flying tourbillon at the six o’clock, which features a black PVD bridge for the first time. This addition to the Code 11.59 collection sees a technically complicated watch packaged in a neatly symmetrically design of black ceramic and 18K pink gold. The 50-piece limited edition carries the color palette across its movement of openworked bridges and skeletonised counters of its flyback chronograph. Also officially launched today was the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in blue ceramic covered by Hypebeast earlier this month.
Announced in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Royal Oak Concept line, this is the latest expression of one of Audemars Piguet’s most wild watches, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon GMT. Never one to skip the chance to celebrate an anniversary, the Concept line was created as a special project to mark the Royal Oak’s 30th birthday in 2002. Since then, the Concept line has operated as the most avant-garde branch of the Royal Oak family tree, offering very limited production of equally bold and decidedly tech-forward modern Royal Oaks. The Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon GMT debuted in 2018, but the general format dates back to the non-flying Concept GMT Tourbillon of 2011. This model, complete with a flying tourbillon surrounded by green ceramic and pink gold accents, uses a 44mm case that is 16.1mm thick and has been fitted with sapphire crystals front and back to show off its remarkable movement.