Introducing Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked

Audemars Piguet has unveiled a new version of its Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked combining an elegant black ceramic case with a dial design full of subtle contrasts. 

The black ceramic case provides an elegant setting for the newly re-designed blackened openworked dial and the pink gold-toned double balance wheel mechanism, visible on both sides of the watch. This patented innovation, released by Audemars Piguet in 2016, improves the watch’s precision and stability. By incorporating two balance wheels and two hairsprings assembled on the same axis, the system oscillates in perfect synchrony. This self-regulating organ is echoed by the pink gold applied hour-markers and luminescent hands, as well as by the 22-carat pink gold oscillating weight visible on the caseback side. The watch’s titanium caseback also presents a new engraving: “Royal Oak Double Balancier,” in honour of the complex mechanism ticking within. 

In addition, the blackened openworked bridges reveal part of the rhodium-toned gear train on both sides of the watch. An Audemars Piguet speciality since the 1930s, openworking is an art balancing aesthetics and function. Highly trained experts create the movement by starting with the end design and working backwards. Cut too little in the wrong place and it looks wrong. Cut too much and the movement’s functionality is compromised. Solving the puzzle demands horological mastery and profound knowledge of materials and finishing techniques.