The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Watch Review

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Watch Review

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Watch Review

The very first day at SIHH is incorporated in the books

And among the first exhibitors we visited was Audemars Piguet. AP had a large number of new watches this season, so we were wanting to see a number of them within the metal. But when we are being honest, there is one which was out that beats all others: We simply needed to get our on the job the Royal Oak RD#2 Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak RD#2 Watch Review

The Royal Oak RD#2 is really a true record-breaker of the ultra-thin watch that's presently the thinnest automatic perpetual calendar from the brand on the planet, period. At 6.3mm thin, it's thinner than any Royal Oak that's presently being produced too. You heard right - it's thinner than the usual Jumbo heck, it's thinner compared to 33mm Royal Oak ladies' quarta movement pieces. AP achieved this finish by thinking outdoors from the box and approaching the RD#2 project from outlook during radical simplification. Based on the organization, the solution to the issue of methods to lessen the peak of the perpetual calendar ended up being to combine features and functions that when known as for separate mechanisms into singular components. In this manner, AP reduced its perpetual from the three-level movement, with wheels and gears layered atop each other, right into a mechanism having a single, flat row of interacting components that, in some instances, performed what were once distinct functions.

One illustrative illustration of how AP simplified 

The complication is the use of merely one 48-step month wheel for that leap-year cycle, a presentation which was once made with multiple amounts of gearing. Around the new wheel, 31-day several weeks are symbolized with a shallow depression 30-day several weeks are much deeper. The greatest three would be the shortest several weeks from the cycle,  standard 28-day Februarys. Another notch marks a 29-day Feb, as familiar with leap years. Usually, inside a complicated watch having a perpetual calendar, a watch manufacturing company would combine a 12-step month wheel having a separate 4-year cam for that leap year.

The dial gives substantial support towards the movement below it, AP states, functioning effectively as the second plate. With a lot of the caliber's own depth stripped away or flattened out in search of absolute thinness and ease, AP looked to some component whose function is usually  focused on appearance and legibility and  managed to get an origin of strength. Further information on the movement is going to be forthcoming from Audemars Piguet sooner or later lower the street, but they're keeping specifics under wraps for the time being (though clearly it will likely be huge news if this breaks).

This isn't to state the dial continues 

To be relegated entirely to some utilitarian role. Not even close to it. This is because appealing a Tapisserie dial as you will probably see on any Royal Oak. And something of my colleagues commented, very insightfully I believe, that because there's so very little space between your dial and also the very, it's possible to even more understand the depth from the displays and dial pattern.

One factor that does immediately strike you when holding the Royal Oak RD#2 is the fact that regardless of the thinness from the movement, this can be a very heavy watch. The 41mm situation, the bezel, and also the substantial links from the integrated bracelet are 950 platinum. I did not possess a pocket scale, and AP has not spoken around the watch's weight, however in the hands the timepiece feels downright heavy.