BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Audemars Piguet seems to have randomly chosen yesterday to drop one of the hottest watches of the year, that being their brand new Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5, and that’s the last time I’m typing that full name out. The watch is the last of Audemars Piguet’s “RD” line of experimental watches, the previous piece was launched in February 2023. Released to mark the occasion of the brand’s 150th anniversary this year, the newest Royal Oak pulls out all the stops and demonstrates that the brand is so much more than just a one trick pony, even if this watch is in the Royal Oak case.
Measuring 39mm x 8.1mm, it seems like the “Jumbo” part of the name is misplaced, however, this is a historical reference, as the standard Royal Oak was much smaller in the 1970s than it is now (as were most watches, at 36mm or less). The 39mm Royal Oak, therefore, was oversized for the time, and so the “Jumbo” name became associated with it. The case is made of titanium and bulk metallic glass is used for the bezel, the bracelet links, the pushers and the function selector on the crown (more on that in a moment), and the case is water resistant to 20m.
The dial features the hallmarks of the Royal Oak used in all the right ways. The petite tapisserie guilloché pattern serves as the perfect base for the cursive script used in the Audemars Piguet name, which they’ve been using on their 150th anniversary models. The dial colour is called “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50”. The bi-compax subdial layout is clear and seems easily legible, meanwhile, a flying tourbillon sits at 6 O’clock. All of this is powered by the brand new calibre 8100, which is a technical tour de force.
Audemars Piguet says it wanted to focus on the tactility of interacting with its watches. For example, it developed a new system for the crown where the centre of it is a pusher which switches the crown between winding mode and time setting mode, rather than the traditional “pull-out” style of selecting the crown’s function. A red ring around the pusher in the crown indicates to the user when the pusher has been depressed and the crown is in time setting mode. A lot of focus also went into the Calibre 8100’s chronograph pushers to make it as smooth as possible to start, stop and reset the chronograph; somewhere between ten and 25 times less pressure is apparently required to use the chronograph, according to Audemars Piguet. Other brands have focused on this in the past to good measure. Zenith’s reimagined Pilot Chronograph did this, and it’s one of the best-feeling chronographs I’ve tried.
To make all this work, Audemars Piguet’s watchmakers re-imagined the chronograph’s mechanics, but I have to be completely honest with you, dear reader, when I say that I don’t quite understand how the mechanism works. I feel there is no shame in that, and I would rather tell you up front than write a confusing paragraph about why this flyback chronograph with a column wheel and vertical clutch is different to all the others out there. Helpfully, Audemars Piguet has some rather snazzy visuals on their website which go some way to filling the gaps, and yet here I am writing this. If you’re a watchmaker with some idea as to what’s happening here, please do pop into the comments section at the end of this article.
The ultra-thin flying tourbillon used in the RD#3 watch is on show on the RD#5’s dial, its cage is made from titanium, and Audemars Piguet mounted the weights used to adjust the watch’s timing on the inside of the balance wheel to save space. I’m not sure whether this actually affects the precision of the watch, it’d be interesting to note. The balance wheel within the tourbillon beats at 3Hz, and the movement has a power reserve of around 72 hours, and there’s a peripheral winding rotor visible through the caseback, so you can wear this watch and keep it running.
This new watch is on sale now, however, it’s limited to just 150 examples worldwide and the price is a pretty high one at CHF260,000. I’m hoping we get to see more of the Calibre 8100, it’d be interesting to see it used in a Royal Oak Offshore, assuming those are still cool, or am I just out of touch?
