BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
It’s the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Audemars Piguet, and it just dropped about 20 new watches on us, way before Watches & Wonders Geneva, where the brand is making its debut in April. Puzzling? Yes. But, it’s also quite exciting to see one of the most respected names in horology introduce so many new watches, and they’re quite a diverse bunch.
The most noteworthy release from the brand is undoubtedly the new Neo Frame Jumping Hour piece. Audemars Piguet has done nearly everything there is to do in traditional watchmaking except, it seems, the jumping hours display – until now. Their first crack at the jumping hours layout comes in the form of a classy two-tone gold and black Art Deco-inspired appearance with a 34mm 18k pink gold case with 20m of water resistance. Attached to it is a black calfskin leather strap with a classy diamond pattern on it and an 18k pink gold pin buckle. I really like the way this looks; the Streamline Moderne appearance of the gold case picks up on one of the most interesting parts of the Art Deco movement, in my view. While it has some similarity to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso, an Art Deco icon, I think Audemars Piguet has done enough to differentiate its design while being faithful to the era’s principles. I’m a little worried that it would be too small for my wrists, though. Cartier’s Privé Tank à Guichet watches from last year were lovely but small and hard to read.
The dial, or what there is of it, is black. The sapphire dial layer is PVD-coated to be deep black; it would’ve been cool to see them use Vantablack here, but this does look good. Two microblasted gold apertures make way for the time indications, of which there are only the hours and the minutes.
Behind the dial sits the self-winding calibre AP 7122. Made in-house by Audemars Piguet, the movement features a self-winding gold rotor, skeletonised to offer a better view of the calibre. The movement measures 29.6mm in diameter and 4mm in thickness, and yet it still gets a 52-hour power reserve despite having to move those heavy time wheels (of which the hour indicator jumps instantaneously on the hour). The movement features high-end côtes de Genève striping on the plates and visible chamfering around the edges.
Available soon, this new piece costs $71,200, I hope we’ll see more of these in different varieties. Perhaps platinum with a meteorite dial, that would be something.
150 Heritage Ultra-Complication Universal Calendar
As a special treat for our readers, before I go and do whatever it is I usually do, we’ve got this new pocket watch. It seems Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe aren’t going to be left to their own when it comes to very complex pocket watches, as Audemars Piguet has released the 150 Heritage Ultra-Complication Universal Calendar watch. It features a 50mm x 23.4mm platinum case featuring high-level engraving on the caseband and a handmade chain that’s also crafted from platinum. A beautiful blue enamel dial shows the time, a tourbillon, the calendar including a year indication, and the indications from the flyback chronograph. Also inside the watch is a minute repeater, and Audemars Piguet’s Supersonnerie, which should provide excellent volume and clarity for the chimes.
The movement is visible in all its glory through the caseback, which reveals the mechanism for the calendar function. While the dial displays plenty of calendar information, the caseback reveals even more, including the moonphase, days and weeks, leap years, the solstices, and various religious holidays throughout the year. The full breakdown of what’s inside this watch is below. Audemars Piguet says there are 22 complications with 40 functions, although it depends on who’s deciding what is and is not a complication/function. A total of 1099 parts go into the calibre AP 1150, which has a 60-hour power reserve and measures 34.3mm across by 8.9mm thick. This watch is, right now, a unique piece, although I noticed on their website that Audemars Piguet says it will be making 18 additional 18k white gold chains in the future. I can’t help but think these chains will be connected to a limited run of different versions of this special watch at some point.
COMPLICATIONS
Autonomous informative functions (or accepted as such by convention)
1. Tourbillon (by convention)
2. Day indication
3. Date indication
4. Large date display
5. Month indication
6. Year indication, units and tens discs (semi‑Gregorian calendar)
7. Mechanical leap-year calculation (semi-Gregorian calendar, with indication)
8. Mechanical calculation of the centennial leap -year exception (100 / 400 years, with indication)
9. Moon-phase mechanism
10. Moon display
11. Chronograph seconds indication
12. Chronograph minutes indication
13. Chronograph hours indication
14. Split-seconds
15. Hour-strike repeater mechanism
16. Quarter-strike repeater mechanism
17. Grande sonnerie
18. Petite sonnerie
19. Minute repeater
20. Year indication, units and tens discs (universal calendar)
21. Mechanical leap -year calculation (universal calendar, with indication)
22. Centuries and millennia disc
23. Indication of the year (common or leap year)
24. Mobile leap -year annual calendar disc
25. Mobile lunar calendar disc
26. Mobile week disc
27. Mobile pointer for cultural celebrations
28. New moon pointers following the Hijri system
INTUITIVE MECHANISED ERGONOMICS
Non-informative functions assisting use, reliability, correction or perceived quality
1. High -amplitude escapement
2. Hours and minutes display (legibility/reading ergonomics)
3. Bidirectional time -setting
4. Shock protection
5. Quick date correction
6. Bidirectional date correction
7. Bidirectional quick month correction
8. Indirect quick year correction
9. Unidirectional quick day correction
10. Unidirectional quick moon correction
11. Start/stop chronograph mechanism (non-jumping hand)
212. Chronograph reset mechanism (controlled force)
13. Flyback mechanism
14. Activation/deactivation mechanism for the split seconds
15. Chiming “silent mode”
16. Chiming/display synchronisation mechanism
17. Low -consumption vertical chiming clutch
18. Delay mechanism
19. Low -consumption lifting pieces
20. High-tone hammer with elastic anti-rebound stop
21. Low-tone hammer with elastic anti-rebound stop
22. Chiming lock in case of barrel depletion
23. Chiming isolation during time -setting
24. Safety disengaging crown for chiming mechanisms
25. Unidirectional manual winding for the chiming mechanism
26. Quarter-silence function
27. Silent regulator
28. Resonance table
29. Bidirectional quick correction of the universal calendar
30. Crown control mechanism
31. Multifunction pusher at 2 o’clock
32. Multifunction pusher at 4 o’clock
MOVEMENT
Constituent components without autonomous functional status
1. Movement energy
2. Chiming energy
3. Multifunction crown
4. Parallax compensation for the pusher at 2 o’clock
5. Parallax compensation for the pusher at 4
6. Parallax compensation for the crown
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