What do you do if a watch in pink gold is too bold for your taste, and white gold looks too much like stainless steel? Well, firstly, it’s a nice problem to have. But secondly, should you find yourself in this agonising metallurgical quandary, Audemars Piguet can help.
The clever craftspeople in the AP lab have cooked up a new alloy that sits somewhere between steel and gold and they’ve called it sand gold. Subtle, luxurious, elegantly understated, the patented material makes its debut on the 2024 Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked watch, recently unveiled in Milan.
Demonstrating the playfulness of sand gold, Lucas Raggi, AP’s Head of Research and Development, tells Esquire Middle East, “If you put the new sand gold Royal Oak alongside my steel watch you see the difference immediately. But if you look at the sand gold piece on its own, you’re not so sure, it can be quite tricky to identify the material.”
Concocted from gold, copper and palladium, the 18 carat alloy was named sand gold due to its likeness to dunes in the sunlight and seems ideally suited for watch collectors in the Middle East. “If you tilt the watch made from sand gold in sunlight, it changes from grey to gold,” says Raggi. The palladium is important, he says, because it prevents discolouration. “Rose gold usually turns yellowish after a while and loses its colour,” explains Raggi. “We have replaced the silver with palladium which helps the material keep its colour.”
AP’s research in sand gold was a response to the brand’s wish to diversify its offering. “Titanium and steel are always grey,” says Raggi. “Gold and precious materials are the only ones that allows us to bring more colours so we developed sand gold to allow us to bring more shades.”
A sand gold toned hue was developed by AP through galvanic treatment to adorn the inner bezel, openworked bridges and mainplate of the watch’s Calibre 2972, first introduced in 2022 for the Royal Oak’s 50th birthday. Other visible components of the movement inside this latest 41mm Royal Oak, such as the barrel, geartrain and flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock, have been given a rhodium-tone. Brushed and polished, finished horizontally and vertically, the result is a dazzling light show.
The alluring Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Openworked marks the premiere of sand gold but Raggi says more pieces made from the precious metal will follow. “We want to expand the material, and surprises are going to come,” he grins.