Audemars Piguet has unveiled five new Royal Oak Offshore references interpreted in 37 and 43mm sizes.
Available in different materials, two models are in titanium, two in gemset 18-carat white gold and one in black ceramic.
The Tapisserie dials bear the pattern of an equaliser (or VU meter) as found in recording studios.
These references are equipped with selfwinding movements driving hours, minutes and seconds hands: the new Calibre 5909 for the 37 mm models and Calibre 4309 for the 43 mm variants.
AP explained how it is keen to celebrate creative synergies that the Manufacture has been cultivating with the music world for several years with the launch.
Over the past 20 years, the relationship between Audemars Piguet and the world of music – which began at the company’s creation in 1875 with the development of chiming watches – has grown ever stronger.
In 2005, Audemars Piguet revealed its first collaboration with a music artist: to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Jay-Z’s career, the Manufacture launched a Royal Oak Offshore limited edition accompanied by an iPod containing the artist’s discography.
This first limited edition with a reference to the world of music paved the way for other collaborations cementing longstanding friendships, notably with Quincy Jones in 2009, who shares the values of the Manufacture: technical mastery, precision and a taste for innovation.
In 2006, the brand embarked on research into the acoustic development of striking watches in partnership with EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and a panel of experts composed of watchmakers, engineers, musicians and sound specialists.
Eight years of research resulted in the development of a system that combines a chiming mechanism with an innovative case architecture, marking a significant advance in terms of acoustic performance, sound amplification and sonic quality.
Three patents have been filed for the Supersonnerie technology featured in the Royal Oak Concept Minute Repeater Supersonnerie, which won the “Mechanical Exception Watch Prize” at the 2016 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.
In 2010, Audemars Piguet pursued its commitment to the musical scene by joining the Claude Nobs Foundation and EPFL in supporting the Montreux Jazz Digital Project.
This large-scale project has enabled the digitisation, conservation and enrichment of the festival’s entire audiovisual archives, listed on UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” programme. The links between the Manufacture and the Montreux Jazz Festival were further strengthened in 2019, when Audemars Piguet became a Global Partner of the festival.
Since 2019, the Manufacture has continued to foster creative exchanges with the world of music, notably welcoming DJ, composer and producer Mark Ronson as an ambassador in 2022 and working with him on various inspirational projects.
This new Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Music Edition line accentuates the synergies between the two worlds, while endowing the collection with a new colourful aesthetic that will delight music and watchmaking enthusiasts.
