British jewellery designer Hatton Labs has created a lab grown diamond-studded Audemars Piguet Royal Oak it has called the Portcullis.
The timepiece was produced in collaboration between the London-based jeweller and MAD, a Paris-based watch customisation specialist.
Neither Hatton Labs nor MAD have any formal relationship with Audemars Piguet.
The Portcullis is inspired by a medieval fortified gate, a prominent design feature amongst British and French castles throughout medieval Europe.
Hatton Labs and MAD do not say how many of the watch will be made, other than describing it as “extremely limited”.
The business was founded in 2019 by Jack Cannon and Joe Gelb with a mission to make personalised jewellery using modern materials and manufacturing techniques.
Its first foray into watches extends this mission and its design came about while experimenting with stone setting.
Mr Cannon and Mr Gelb discovered that cutting and setting diamonds in an irregular upside-down fashion created pyramid spikes that look appealing against the polished steel of a watch’s case and bracelet and mirror-polished dial of a 37mm Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.
The watch’s bezel is set with 40 pyramid-cut diamonds, and the bracelet has another 20 of the gems.
That adds up to a total of 5.5 carats of G / VVS, Lab Grown Diamonds.
It is on sale now for $158,000.
Hatton Labs points out that MAD watches are made to order and any original guarantee from Audemars Piguet is void.
