SIHH 2019: Will Code 11.59 be the dawn of a new day for Audemars Piguet?
Watch face looks big for a 41mm, thanks to a nearly non-existent bezel and a double curved sapphire glass with a dome-shaped internal surface
There is little doubt that the Royal Oak and its offsprings, the Offshore and the Concept, have defined Audemars Piguet as a brand for collectors. The Royal Oak was introduced in 1972, while the Royal Oak Offshore celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, and with demand often surpassing supply, it would seem natural for the brand to continue enhancing these collections.
But, not content with resting on its Royal Oak laurels, the Swiss independent watchmaker is introducing a new collection of what it hopes will be its next generation of collectibles at the annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva today, with delivery to boutiques in about two weeks.
The new Code 11.59 collection, comprising 13 new references, is the first new collection to be launched by the brand since the women’s oval-shaped Millenary collection in 1993 and the Royal Oak Concept in 2002, and it’s aiming to turn industry heads with a slew of new features and three new calibres.
[Creating a double curve] is very complicated. This watch is all about detail
The new collection will feature four references for a self-winding model, available in pink gold with white or black lacquered dial options, and white gold with blue or black dials, with applied logo and hour markers and a date window at half past four.
The face of the watch looks remarkably big for a 41mm, thanks to a nearly non-existent bezel and a double curved sapphire glass with an internal surface shaped like a dome and an external surface that is vertically curved from 6 to 12 o’clock.
“We wanted the best legibility and we wanted almost no bezel. If you look at phones and TVs there are no frames so the codes of today’s world are very large. [Creating a double curve] is very complicated. This watch is all about detail, so we went and pushed detail as far as possible,” says Audemars Piguet CEO Francois-Henry Bennahmias.
“Gold is very soft and lacquer is easily scratched, so if you so much as move the wrong way … We had to recalculate the exact size of the logo so that it would be strong and big enough to hold the pressure. That was almost two years in development.”