Royal Oak RD#2 is implemented.
A year ago, Audemars Piguet launched the Royal Oak RD#2 perpetual calendar ultra-thin watch. This is a concept watch that, to a certain extent, has won the title of the world’s thinnest automatic perpetual calendar.
After five years of production, the height of RD#2 (including the case) is 6.3mm, and the movement is only 2.89mm, which is one-third thinner than the brand’s next thinnest perpetual calendar movement “cal”, which is 1.42mm. 5134.
Although most concept watches usually simplify their technology when converting to regular production, fundamentally, the Royal Oak self-winding perpetual calendar ultra-thin watch is basically RD#2 with only some appearance adjustments.
Although RD#2 is made entirely of platinum, case and bracelet, the frosted, brushed titanium case and bracelet of the production model make it more comfortable and affordable to wear, but the bezel and bracelet center point decorated with polished platinum are also Very important.
However, the classic Royal Oak case decoration, which combines the brushed top surface and the polished bevels, is still intact.
Instead of discovering the Royal Oak’s iconic guilloche pattern on RD#2, the dial of the new perpetual calendar was simplified to make it lighter and more concise. The dial is dark blue and has been vertically brushed to make the hands and hour markers more conspicuous.
This is a wise decision, because the dial has more sub-dials than the normal Royal Oak Perpetual calendar, and it also adds day and night and indicator year indicators to overlap with the larger sub-dial.
Despite minor changes, the watch is still a Royal Oak. In fact, the size means it is physically reminiscent of the original Royal Oak. The 5402 “Jumbo” launched in 1972.
This watch is 41 mm wide and 6.3 mm high, which is 3.2 mm thinner than the ordinary Royal Oak perpetual calendar. This is all thanks to a newly developed movement that, ironically, is one of the oldest and continuously produced movements in the industry.
The ultra-thin perpetual calendar is driven by a self-winding movement. 5133, based on cal. 2120 was found in the Royal Oak “Giant”. Therefore, it is one of the few ultra-thin movements with a full rotor instead of a super rotor. In fact, the complete rotor of cal. 2120, and expanded to cal. 5133 is one of its iconic features.
In production for half a century, cal. 2120 was originally developed by Jaeger-LeCoultre. 920, but now produced in-house by Audemars Piguet. It broke the record when it debuted. The 2120 has a “suspended barrel”, which means that it has no upper bridge and only runs on the pivot of the bottom plate. swiss watches
In addition, in order to reduce the thickness of the rotor, most of its mass is moved to its periphery. In order to ensure higher stability, the bottom surface of the rotor and the most unique element: the beryllium ring is supported by ruby rollers.
The new movement is not only thinner, but also simplified. It consists of 256 parts, while there are only 374 parts in the table. The 5134 is in the standard Royal Oak perpetual calendar (2120 calendar with module on top).
Reducing the height of the movement so significantly means that the movement grows sideways. The diameter of the calibration 5133 is 32 mm, and the diameter of the cal is 29 mm. 5134.
Audemars Piguet described the movement project as similar to collapsing a three-story building into one, spreading the combined floor area over a large single-story building.
To achieve this goal, two patents were applied. The first involves a date wheel with an integrated month-end cam. It has an irregular tooth that is deeper than the other teeth and advances the crescent disc by one increment at the end of the month. buy swiss watches