Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Platinum Green Dial
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Platinum Green Dial Ref 15202PT.OO is one of three new models from the esteemed Swiss Manufacture. The other delights, also endowed with green dials, include the Royal Oak Selfwinding Ref 26631BA.OO and the Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon References: 26534TI.OO / 265321C.EE / 26533OR.OO. Mark McArthur-Christie examines each new variant of this legendary watch in his own inimitable way.
The quartz crisis of the 70s
Very briefly, in early 1970, the most important man in the entire world of horology was a dustman – the guy who empties the bins. He’ll have strolled up the front path of a house somewhere in Switzerland, whistling as he hoisted another bin onto his shoulder, emptied it into his dustcart and trundled off.
He wouldn’t have known for a minute that the container he just up-ended contained the preliminary sketches for a watch that would go on to save an entire firm and perhaps even a whole industry.
Gerald Genta’s Royal Oak
An overnight design miracle or not, Gerald Genta’s Royal Oak was – and is – a remarkable watch. In a conservative watch world full of 36mm gold cases and tradition, Genta’s sketches for a big and bold stainless steel design were almost unthinkably radical. The idea that a large, stainless steel watch could be a luxury product was pretty much nuts.
Jean Claude Biver, who was at Audemars Piguet at the time, said to Hodinkee’s Ben Clymer in a 2014 interview “We had to push it. We had to invest in it because it was not obvious to everyone that a luxury watch would be in steel, but we could feel that there was potential.”
Biver was, as he so often is, dead right.
Audemars Royal Oak – extensive choice
Today, you can have your Royal Oak in anything from 33 mm to 44 mm, quartz, manual or automatic, two-handed, three-handed or chronograph, gold (of varying types), plain steel (of course), titanium or even jewel-encrusted. And now Audemars Piguet has launched three new models (five if you count different case materials); a three-hander, a chronograph and a tourbillon two-hander. All very different watches but their lineage is indisputably Royal Oak – no paternity tests required.
There’s a distinctly green thing going on here, with each of the watches featuring various shades and textures. The two-hander gets a smoked green dial, the chrono a classic Grande Tapisserie design and the tourbillons a sunburst design that AP calls ‘Evolutive Tapisserie’ – both in, you guessed it, green.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Platinum Green Dial Ref 15202PT.OO
The new two-hander, snappily-titled Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Ref. 15202PT.OO.1240PT.01 is definitely the insiders’ watch. Unless you’re sharp at telling platinum from stainless or carry around an Audemars Piguet reference book, you’d probably not give it a second glance.
This is ideal if you want a top-end watch that’s (relatively) under the radar – at least, as under the radar as a Royal Oak ever manages to be. The platinum case and bracelet manage to feel simultaneously much more luxurious and a lot heavier, but also distinctly un-shouty. Although the green fumé dial (more anon) is quite a departure, there’s little to tell the uninitiated this is a serious watch, apart from its price tag.
The fumé dial isn’t high gloss à la Moser, but instead uses a sunburst etch along with the colour on the surface. The hand-applied hour markers are lume-filled white gold – as are the hands. There’s an AP logo just above 6, fixed through the dial by two tiny pins. It’s a simple dial, but all the better for it. The only departure from symmetry is the date over at 3.
Inside, AP use the Calibre 2121. Designed in the 1970s, this movement’s family is still home to the thinnest date full-rotor automatics you can buy. Mind you, the Calibre 2121 is hardly the bruiser of the bunch at just 3.05 mm (without the date wheel it would be an even more svelte 2.45 mm and logically called the Calibre 2120). Originally developed from the Jaeger-LeCoultre Cal. 820, AP has very much made the movement its own, using it throughout the entire Royal Oak series for years. It’s a 36 jewel, 40-hour power reserve self-winder, beating at 19,800 vph.
Le Brassus is asking 97 100.00 CHF for this piece of hefty platinum understatement and you’ll only be able to see one by appointment at one of the AP Houses. You certainly won’t be seeing too many of these popping up on Ebay.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph Ref. 26331BA.02
Next up is the Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph 26331BA.OO.1220BA.02. It’s not exactly a shouty watch, but by comparison with the understated Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Platinum Green Dial it’s pretty striking. To start with, the case material is different; an 18ct yellow gold case and bracelet this time. If you don’t fancy the workout of lugging an 18ct bracelet around, that’s fine; AP have thoughtfully popped a green calfskin and a green rubber strap in the box.
The green (of course) dial is the minute chequerboard pattern that featured on Genta’s earliest Royal Oak sketches. It’s fair to say that making Tapisserie dials isn’t a mass-production process. There’s a huge amount of hand-finishing involved, from reaming the hour marker recesses to hand-fixing each marker (yellow gold in this case) in place.
There’s a LOT more going on on the Chronograph’s dial, with chrono centre seconds, hours, a 30-minute counter and a running seconds. Yet, despite the potential for busyness, especially with a date fitted at an angle just above 5 o’clock, the watch doesn’t look cluttered or over-functioned.
The movement for the chronograph is the AP cal. 2385, a 37 jewel, 40-hour calibre beating at 21,600 vph. It’s another skinny minnie at just 5.5 mm thick. It’s a bit of a surprise not to see the new cal. 4400 movement powering the Chronograph, particularly as the tourbillons use the 11.59’s cal. 2950, but the Royal Oak watches have been running the cal. 2385 for years, so if it ain’t broke…
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon References: 26534TI.OO / 265321C.EE / 26533OR.OO
Then there are the three Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon watches.
These rather raise the question about the need for tourbillons in wristwatches. Isn’t making a tourbillon wristwatch like putting a spoiler on a one litre Honda Civic? Well, not really. First, a tourbillon still means you get fewer positional errors with the balance, even if it moves around with the wearer’s wrist. OK, so it’s fractional, but it’s there, so that makes sense. And then there’s the Everest Factor; the sheer ‘why do it?’ Heck, because it’s there, because you can and because it’s rather wonderful. Watches, particularly those at this level, aren’t about utility. They’re about engineering and serious watchmaking.
So you have a choice of three new green-dialled tourbillon Royal Oaks. One in titanium, one in titanium, white gold and with a whole bezelful of dial-matching emeralds (green, see) and one in pink gold. Where the Jumbo Extra-Thin was playing down the whole precious case material thing, these three are very happy flaunting it.
Each takes the guilloché Tapisserie dial but radiates the pattern, the blocks getting progressively larger from the tourbillon recess at 6. It’s a sort of rising-sunburst, although AP call it ‘Evolutive Tapisserie’. Even if you could ignore the tourbillon spinning happily at the base of the dial, the pattern draws your eye to it. The dial markers are white gold on the titanium-cased watches with pink gold matching the case of the third variant.
The same movement is shared between the three watches, the cal. 2950. It’s fortunate that the casebacks on the tourbillon watches are, like the dials, glareproof sapphire because these are gorgeous movements to look at. Yes, there’s a tourbillon at the front, but the backs are every bit as good to see. It’s the same movement that popped up in AP’s Code 11.59 series, launched in 2019.
It beats at 21,600 vph (3Hz), has 27 jewels and has a properly impressive 65 hours power reserve, not that you’d want to take it off all that often. The movement finishing is straight out of the top drawer with anglage and Côtes de Genève. The flying tourbillon remains the star of the show. It uses the now traditional AP’s ‘Mercedes’ style but without an upper bridge.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Platinum Green Dial – closing thoughts
It’s quite a choice between platinum simplicity right the way through to the proper wrist-monument experience with the titanium and emerald tourbillon option. Doubtless, some deep-pocketed collectors will snaffle all five, different as they are.
But no matter which models they choose, it’s testimony to Genta’s original design that more than fifty years later the Royal Oak is not only still going but thriving. It’s even more impressive that these new models, along with the many others over the last 51 years, are all still instantly recognisable as Royal Oaks.
Further reading
https://www.audemarspiguet.com/
Technical specification
- Model: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Platinum Green Dial
- Reference: 15202PT.OO.1240PT.01
- Case: 950 platinum case; diameter 39 mm; sapphire crystal to front and exhibition case back
- Functions: Hours; minutes; date
- Movement: Calibre 2121; self-winding movement; frequency 19,800 vph (2.75 Hz); 36 jewels; power reserve 40 hours
- Bracelet: 950 platinum bracelet with AP folding clasp
- Price: 97,100 CHF (RRP as of 3.4.2021)
- Model: Audemars Piguet Selfwinding Chronograph
- Reference: 26331BA.OO.1220BA.02
- Case: 18-carat yellow case; diameter 41 mm; sapphire crystal to front and exhibition case back
- Functions: Hours; minutes; small seconds; date
- Movement: Calibre 2385; self-winding movement; frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz); 37 jewels; power reserve 40 hours
- Bracelet: 18-carat yellow gold bracelet with AP folding clasp. Supplied with two additional in green calfskin and green rubber
- Price: 68,900 CHF (RRP as of 3.4.2021)
- Model: Audemars Piguet Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon
- Reference: 26534TI.OO.1220TI.01
- Case: Titanium case; diameter 41 mm; sapphire crystal to front and exhibition case back
- Functions: Hours; minutes; flying tourbillon
- Movement: Calibre 2950; self-winding movement; frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz); 27 jewels; power reserve 65 hours
- Bracelet: Titanium bracelet with AP folding clasp.
- Price: On request
- Model: Audemars Piguet Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon
- Reference: 26532IC.EE.1220TI.01
- Case: Titanium case with 18-carat white gold bezel set with baguette-cut diamonds; diameter 41 mm; sapphire crystal to front and exhibition case back
- Functions: Hours; minutes; flying tourbillon
- Movement: Calibre 2950; self-winding movement; frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz); 27 jewels; power reserve 65 hours
- Bracelet: Titanium bracelet with AP folding clasp.
- Price: On request
- Model: Audemars Piguet Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon
- Reference: 26533OR.OO.1220OR.01
- Case: 18-carat pink gold case; diameter 41 mm; sapphire crystal to front and exhibition case back
- Functions: Hours; minutes; flying tourbillon
- Movement: Calibre 2950; self-winding movement; frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz); 27 jewels; power reserve 65 hours
- Bracelet: 18-carat pink gold bracelet with AP folding clasp.
- Price: On request
