AUDEMARS PIGUET Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Selfwinding

Four long years have passed and the Code 11.59 is still the new kid on the block, but it has grown out of its weird-looking bald baby phase. The core of the watch remains the same as what AP released in 2019; the Selfwinding houses the 4302 movement, and the Selfwinding Chronograph, the 4401.  But it is growing into a more appealing toddler whose parents are dressing it up in smart new outfits.  These new releases offer three new colors in stainless steel cases. They have guilloche dials with a concentric circle pattern, and each version comes in a deep, dark green, a dark blue (Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50,  which is a popular Royal Oak shade), and a smoked beige. The blue and green are made entirely of steel, and the smoked beige watches have a ceramic middle case.

Both watches would feel more or less the same as their predecessors in the dark, with a thin bezel octagonal case middle and a domed top and those much-discussed lugs, which are only attached to the upper part of the case.

Audemars Piguet just announced three new variations of the Code 11.59 collection, demonstrating the Swiss watchmaker’s dedication to the line as it celebrates the Royal Oak’s 50th anniversary. The three different just-released Code 11.59 watches all iterate aesthetically on existing Code 11.59 models in dramatically different ways.

The new Code 11.59 Tourbillon Openworked features a blue ceramic case that’s encompassed by an 18-karat white gold bezel, lugs

and caseback. The movement inside is the hand-wound openworked tourbillon-equipped caliber 2948, which has been comprehensively decorated in numerous shades of blue through a chemical process known as Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). It’s surrounded by an interior rehaut that’s been blued through chemical vapor deposition (CVD, rather than PVD), while the long, thin handset is made of solid 18-karat pink gold and the balance wheel is executed in a matching gold tone.

The architecture of the caliber 2948, newly executed in the bright blue hue, is completely unique and almost irresistible in its boldness. The movement measures just 3.65mm in height, which means the impressive sense of three-dimensionality the movement conveys is almost magical.

Slightly less complicated but just as visually compelling is the new Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon with a black ceramic central case, an 18-karat white gold bezel and lugs, and a rich dark dial made of solid black onyx. The big news on this model, for those who have followed the 11.59 series since its 2019 debut, is that AP decided to kill off the applied hour markers on the dial, allowing the stone dial material to move to center stage.

AP worked with the La Chaux-de-Fonds-based dial maker Someco to carve the dial out of a single black onyx stone. The dial is first cut into a thin disc, ground, sanded, and polished before ending up in the two-tone case. Each dial is naturally unique, which means that there is potentially endless room for aesthetic variation. The Code 11.59 Flying Tourbillon with a black onyx dial is not a limited edition release.