Audemars Piguet launch new limited edition Royal Oak with Carolina Bucci

By Kim Parker

Her first two timepieces designed for Audemars Piguet were runaway successes. Now, the jeweller Carolina Bucci has once again collaborated with the Swiss haute horlogerie manufacturer on a limited edition Royal Oak timepiece, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the iconic watch model.

First conceived by the late watchmaker Gerald Genta (who was also responsible for Patek Philippe’s legendary Nautilus) and launched in 1972 to boost Audemars Piguet’s standing at a time when battery-operated quartz watches were storming the horological industry, the octagonal-shaped Royal Oak has become a true design icon over the ensuing five decades. There have now been over 500 iterations of this sleek and sporty watch, which is now adored by watch connoisseurs worldwide and worn by a host of celebrities including Jay-Z, John Mayer, Travis Scott, Kylie Jenner and Justin Beiber.

Also a life-long fan of the Royal Oak’s retro good looks, the Italian jeweller Carolina Bucci has previously collaborated twice with Audemars Piguet on golden iterations of the watch, which have featured her signature ‘Florentine finish’ – a unique hammered effect that gives a diamond-like sparkle to metal.

For her third design for the Swiss watchmaker, Bucci has opted to embrace an all-black ceramic 34mm timepiece, with a surprising ‘optical illusion’ dial. At first, the dial appears completely dark, but when moved around in the light, its signature Tapisserie design appears to shimmer with a mirror-like rainbow effect, like the colours seen on a slick of oil.

To achieve the mesmerising illusory effect, Audemars Piguet’s atelier used a sapphire plate adorned with the Tapisserie’s grid-like squares, achieved with micro-structuring, added to the top of a brass dial plate. The new Royal Oak’s black ceramic case and bracelet are further highlighted with hexagonal pink gold screws in the bezel, and its titanium caseback has been engraved with ‘Limited Edition Carolina Bucci’. The jeweller has also designed a special presentation box for the limited-edition watch, inspired by the classic Tapisserie dial pattern of the original 1972 Royal Oak model.

“I wanted to place a rainbow in the most unexpected of places, a little like when you see oil floating on a puddle in a city street. So here you have every colour of the spectrum on a canvas that is completely black, which is itself the absence of colour,” said Bucci of her new design. No doubt fans such as Justin Bieber and Jay-Z already have their limited-editions lined up.

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