How To Remove Links From Audemars Piguet Strap

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-Thin (ref. 16202)

The Majestic Oak burst onto the scout scene in 1972. This yr, the brand celebrates the model'due south 50th anniversary by introducing the new Audemars Piguet Majestic Oak "Jumbo" Extra-Thin (ref. 16202). Mark McArthur Christie looks into this latest iteration of the iconic model.

It's 1972 and you lot're waking up as the sun slants through the blinds in your flat in London'south newest and smartest development – The Barbican'southward Speed Business firm. As a successful 'something in the City' type, you've only just moved into your new pad to be shut to your firm'southward Basinghall Street offices. You roll out of bed, moving-picture show the shower on and head to the kitchen, where y'all fill your Cona with water and footing coffee and set it on the stove to mash. Y'all smile; in your dedicated infinite in the hush-hush automobile park below y'all is your brand new, V8 Mercedes W116 450 SE. It'll rinse near other cars on the road whilst beingness only slightly less well-appointed than your flat. And on your wrist is the new watch from Audemars Piguet – the stainless steel Royal Oak. Yous picked it upward on your last trip to Switzerland trip while you were working on Raiffeisen Bank's sponsorship deal with Gerhard Berger. Life is indeed skilful.

Difficult to believe information technology'southward been fifty years since AP launched the Ref 5402A Regal Oak at the annual Swiss Watch Prove in Basel. At the fourth dimension it was – in a very skilful mode – basics. For a start, this was a luxury watch that wasn't made from gold. Instead, the case and integrated strap were milled from a piece of stainless steel (the prototypes had been made in gold, though, simply considering it was cheaper than developing the tooling to produce a short run of precision-machined stainless steel cases). And information technology was big – 39mm – in a world where luxury watches were ordinarily 36mm.

Today, the Royal Oak has more justified Audemars Piguet's faith in its designer, Gerald Genta, and is at present very much part of the horological mural. Unsurprising then, that AP is making the most of its 50th anniversary by launching a new 39 mm Royal Oak "Jumbo" Extra-Thin ref. 16202 with a new motility, the cal. 7121. Yous can have your new 16202 encased in stainless steel, just like the old days, or in platinum, yellowish gilt or even pink aureate.

If you cull stainless steel, you get a picket with a straight genetic link to 1972. The case and bracelet are still hand-finished with Genta's mixture of satin brushing and polishing to the case, bracelet and bezel chamfers. You likewise get the now-iconic Petite Tapisserie dial. This one comes in a Bleu Nuit, 'Nuage 50' (night blue, deject 50) hue. The firm originally behind the color was Geneva-based dial maker Stern Frères, only today AP makes each punch in-house. Just as in the 1970s, though, to create the depth of hue needed, the dial maker has to immerse each punch in a galvanic bath for simply the correct amount of time. Not long enough and y'all become a royal dial. Grab a quick coffee and get out it also long and your dial turns out blackness. To striking the desired colour yous non only need to be a properly time-served dial maker, y'all need the bathroom to be at merely the correct temperature with the right mix of chemicals too. Originally, to protect the end you lot'd apply a thin layer of varnish mixed with a few drops of No 50 black colour to the newly minted dial. Today, AP uses physical vapour deposition (PVD) to give an even spread of colour.

If yous're mayhap a petty less of a traditionalist, or only plain wealthier, you lot can choose your new Purple Oak in yellow or even pink gold. The 18-carat pink gilded watch comes with a smoked grey punch, while the 18-carat yellowish gold version'due south dial is a dark, smoked yellow golden. Platinum, on the other hand, gets a smoked green sunburst end. If you're of a certain age and enjoy your motorcycles, yous might even be reminded of the wonderful smoked paint finishes on BMW's R100RS luxury sports tourer, a gimmicky of the Imperial Oak.

The punch is equally much part of the Royal Oak'southward look equally Genta's diving helmet porthole case. Information technology's not the sort of thing one could but postage out past the dozen, either. When Stern Frères fabricated the original dials (sadly, the firm airtight its doors in 2022), information technology did it with a guilloché automobile. This mitt-turned gadget allows the craftsman to carve out hundreds of the Royal Oak's trademark tiny, truncated square pyramid shapes on the dial from a copy-chief. AP acquired an old guilloché copy machine (you endeavor finding a new i – we'll wait) and honed its skills so it could produce its own dials.

If you're sharp-eyed y'all'll spot the hour markers and hands – they're the same 'baignoire' type as Genta chose for his original lookout man. Baignoire past both proper name and nature as they permit AP to fill up the whole marker-tub with lume, then not only are things easy to read in daylight just at night as well. The markers lucifer the case metallic of each watch.

The AP monogram stays where information technology has been from the beginning, just to a higher place the half dozen o'clock marker, with the 'Audemars Piguet Automated' legend just below 12. There'southward no demand for anyone to have a DNA test to prove parentage here.

What has changed and been updated is the engine inside the case. It's more than worth taking a look through the sapphire display back at what's behind information technology – the new cal. 7121. This new motility replaces the original cal. 2121, which was deserving of retirement, lounging in a deckchair past Lake Geneva and enjoying a slice or two of Madeira block with a cup of afternoon tea. In its day, the cal. 2121 was the thinnest motorcar with a central rotor and a appointment indicator (the date wheel and rotor both add bulk, remember) measuring just a tiny squeeze over 3mm. By comparison, a pound coin is simply 0.2mm thinner. The new move is a bit of a victim of aggrandizement at 3.2mm, but it's been designed past and produced by AP's engineers and watchmakers to fit the extra-sparse 8.one mm "Jumbo" case by putting on muscle rather than fat.

The new 33 jewel movement has taken AP's team five years to develop and they've managed to shoehorn in more than new engineering science with a bigger mainspring barrel, a quick-appointment corrector and an in-firm designed twin-reverser on the winding weight (a unique version for these 50th-anniversary models) so information technology tin wind in both directions. That chunkier mainspring barrel means the new move stays accurate for longer as information technology doesn't demand to bargain with power decay from the mainspring in the same way.

Accuracy should be improved (not that there was much incorrect with it earlier) with the new inertia blocks gear up into the rim of the balance. Why put them there? To reduce the air friction created by external rim-mounted screws. That might sound like the horological equivalent of gnat-straining, simply think nigh how fast and how oft a balance oscillates. The effect of air friction is actually significant, so removing it should acuminate the cal. 7121 even farther. How fast? In this case, 4 Hz or 28,800 VpH.

Likewise as being a matter of engineering dazzler, the new movement is something of an aesthetic winner too. Look at the mode the 2-point mounted balance bridge reflects the span holding the mainspring barrel; it gives the movement real visual unity. And that's without the concluding touches; the 268 parts are variously finished with Côtes de Genève, anglage and round graining.

This sort of watchmaking and visual pernicketiness (always a good matter) extends even to the winding weight. Every bit yous'd look past at present, it reflects the aforementioned brushing and polishing as the example. But for this anniversary year, AP will too fit each watch with a special openworked oscillating weight in 22-carat gold with a "50 years" logo and an engraved Audemars Piguet signature. The colour of the weight fifty-fifty matches the metal of the case. Neat.

With then many firms trying to 'update' their watches to make them fit the latest trend, it's good to come across Audemars Piguet not just sticking to their knitting out of stubbornness, a lack of ideas or even plain onetime arrogance, but simply because they got information technology right first time. They've full-bodied on the area where watchmaking really has moved on by improving and updating the Royal Oak'southward internals. By doing and so, they've produced a watch that should, quite comfortably, last the next fifty years. Compassion the bureaucrats wouldn't let Mercedes launch a re-edition of the W116 to become with information technology and mayhap a i sleeping room flat in Speed House, admitting that volition set you back £1m. Not all progress is good.

Further reading

https://www.audemarspiguet.com/

Technical specification

• Model: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak "Colossal" Actress-Thin (ref. 16202)
• Reference: 16202ST.OO.1240ST.01 (stainless steel)
• Reference: 16202ST.OO.1240OR.01 (eighteen-ct pinkish gold)
• Reference: 16202ST.OO.1240BA.01 (xviii-ct yellow golden)
• Reference: 16202ST.OO.1240PT.01 platinum)
• Case: Bore 39 mm; meridian 8.1mm; sapphire crystal to front and exhibition case back
• Functions: Hours; minutes; date
• Movement: Calibre 7121; self-winding motion; frequency 19,800 vph (two.75Hz); 33 jewels; 268 parts; ability reserve 55 hours
• Bracelet: matching bracelet with AP folding clasp
• Prices start from £27,900 (RRP every bit at 22.2.2022)

Source: https://escapementmagazine.com/articles/audemars-piguet-royal-oak-jumbo-extra-thin-ref-16202.html/

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