Latest news with #Calibre7138
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar marks the end of Calibre 5135 era
Since 2025 is Audemars Piguet's 150th anniversary, the brand rolled out new timepieces into the market to celebrate this feat featuring the new Calibre 7138. But one new watch bids farewell to the Calibre 5135: a limited-edition Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked will be the last watch to feature the movement that has powered the brand's 41 mm openworked selfwinding perpetual calendar watches for almost a decade. The Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked '150th Anniversary' limited edition was rolled out with a 41mm casing that reflects light stylishly. Speaking of which, the watch also features an open-work design dating back to the early '80s—a tribute of some sort, launched on the 150th anniversary as a reminder of the original model. It was inspired by a pocket watch that's exhibited in the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet (reference 25729). However, the titanium and Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG) on the case and bracelet keep the watch decidedly modern. It's worth noting that the original Audemars Piguet Perpetual Calendar had some blue hues too, so this timepiece passes down such attributes to the next generation. It creates a smooth balance between the old and the new, merging two worlds into one. The 2025 edition also features an all-in-one crown for tuning the complications on the watch. And just like the previous models, the latest edition is equipped with four different complications at 6, 12, 9, and 3 o'clock denotations, which take the horological performance to the next level. Such complications are characterized by a blue hue that adds to the whole look and breathes some life into the front face. Since this is a limited-edition timepiece, the brand is planning to roll out 150 pieces only, and each will retail at $195,000. The post New Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar marks the end of Calibre 5135 era appeared first on The Manual.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Audemars Piguet's Game-Changing New Perpetual Calendar Can Be Set with a Single Crown
The perpetual calendar—or quantième perpétuel ('QP') for the Francophones among us—has been kicking around the horological world for nearly three centuries. Thomas Mudge, an English watchmaker, was the first to build a pocket watch that displayed the day, date, month, phase of the moon, and accounted for Februaries of different lengths by tracking leap years. This sophisticated pocket watch, No. 525, was completed in 1762, over a decade before the American Revolutionary War. Today, QPs are more common amongst high-end watchmakers, but still stunning in their mechanical complexity. Models from the so-called 'Holy Trinity' of brands—Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin—are particularly sought after. A.P.'s history of QP manufacturing actually dates to the company's founding, when Jules Louis Audemars completed a school pocket watch that combined a perpetual calendar with a quarter repeater as well as a deadbeat seconds mechanism. In 1955, the maison released the world's first perpetual calendar wristwatch with a leap year indicator; in 1978, it debuted the Calibre 2120/2800, the world's thinnest automatic perpetual calendar wristwatch movement. More recently, the brand has released limited-edition Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar models in collaboration with musicians such as Travis Scott and John Mayer. Compelling for their incredible micro-engineering and aesthetics, QPs draw attention to the brand's savoir faire and act as a calling card for its capabilities as a watchmaker. More from Robb Report Actor and Watch Collector Fred Savage Launches a Timepiece Authentication and Grading Service Girard-Perregaux and Aston Martin's New Titanium Watch Has an Iridescent Dial Made with Car Paint From a Rolex GMT-Master II to an Omega Railmaster: Watch-Spotting at the Tucson Gem Shows In celebration of Audemars Piguet's 150th anniversary, the maison has released a fresh new QP movement that's set to be a game-changer within the rarefied air of high-end complications: The automatic Calibre 7138 is the brand's first such movement in which all functionality is controlled via the crown. Gone are the small case correctors used in conjunction with a small, easily-losable tool; gone is the compromised water resistance; gone is the painstakingly slow adjustment necessary after allowing the watch to sit for too long. Using the Calibre 7138's intuitive system, it's easy to set each function quickly and accurately. 'The magic lies in the watch's seamless blend of technical complexity and simplicity of use,' says Ilaria Resta, CEO at Audemars Piguet. The system works like this: In the first position, the crown winds the watch manually. Pulling it out one stop further to the second position allows one to adjust the date clockwise and the month and leap year counterclockwise. In position three, the time can be set bidirectionally. But here's the wild part: Pushing the crown back in one stop activates a set of wandering wheels that puts it into 'position two prime,' a separate setting from position two. Here, the wearer can adjust the day and week number clockwise and the moon phases in the counterclockwise direction. Furthermore, setting the date between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. cannot damage the movement as on other such calendar watches. It still has a red zone on the 9 o'clock day/24-hour indicator, which warns when the date may not engage properly if the user attempts to update it. 'No more setting tools, no more brain gymnastics—too complicated! Everybody can set it, and everybody can wear it and enjoy one of the most romantic and exciting complications ever,' says Resta. Indeed, this patented system is simple to use and smooth in its operation. Furthermore, it's matched to a reworked dial layout that complements the useful movement technology with equally streamlined aesthetics: The updated European date display features the aforementioned day/24-hour indicator display at 9 o'clock; the date indicator at 12 o'clock; a month/leap year indicator at 3 o'clock; and the week numbers printed on the rehaut (as indicated by a central pointer hand). 'Monday,' '1,' and the first week of the year have all been aligned to the 12 o'clock index, making for a clean look, while the date indicator uses a set of customized gear teeth to ensure a display in which each number appears equally spaced. At 6 o'clock, a highly realistic moon phase based upon a NASA photograph has been reworked such that the moon is centered along the 12 o'clock axis. The net result of these subtle updates is a perpetual calendar display more intuitive, legible, and easy to use than ever before. Of course, like most perpetual calendars, the Calibre 7138 computes for the differing lengths of February depending upon whether or not a leap year is in place—if kept fully wound, it won't require manual adjustment from the wearer until the year 2100. Beating at 4 Hz, it features a power reserve of 55 hours, a 22-karat pink gold oscillating weight, and a thin profile of just 4.1 mm. High-end decorative techniques such as Côtes de Genève, satin-brushing, circular graining, satin, snailing, and chamfering are visible from the sapphire caseback of the three new references that incorporate it: The first is a fresh Code 11.59 in a 41 mm 18-karat white gold case (109,300 CHF) whose water resistance has been increased to 30m due to the absence of case correctors. Featuring a smoked blue PVD dial in a special guilloché pattern designed by Swiss artisan Yann von Kaenel, it's paired to a blue rubber-coated strap with a calfskin lining. Two Royal Oak references also use the new movement: The first, measuring 41 mm in stainless steel (109,300 CHF), features a matching integrated bracelet, a blue PVD Grande Tapisserie dial with color-matched subdials and rehaut, and white printing. The second reference is rendered in 18-karat sand gold, the maison's unique alloy consisting of gold, palladium, and copper (130,000 CHF). Featuring a sand gold-tone Grand Tapisserie dial with matching subdials and black printing, it appears more white or pink depending on the light—a unique feature of the sand gold composition. Additionally, each of the three watches will be available in a special 150-piece limited edition in which the 'Audemars Piguet' signature is executed in a vintage-inspired cursive script on the moon phase indicator, with an additional '150' logo and '1 of 150 pieces' engraving on the sapphire caseback frames. Rounding out the QP offerings for early 2025 is the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked 150th Anniversary Edition (175,000 CHF), the last reference to use the brand's Calibre 5135 that has featured in the catalog for almost a decade. A limited edition of just 150 pieces, its lightweight 41 mm case and matching bracelet are constructed from a mix of titanium and Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG), a high-tech, non-crystalline solid used in diverse applications including microelectronics and golf equipment. The dial, meanwhile, is inspired by a platinum pocket watch (ref. 25729) produced by the maison in the 1990s in honor of the Royal Oak's 20th anniversary. Measuring just 4.5 mm tall, the openworked perpetual calendar Calibre 5135 features 374 components to power day, date, month, leap year, week number, and time-telling indications. Now retired by A.P, this movement builds on a longstanding legacy of both QP and openworked caliber development: In the 1970s, the brand released the Calibre 2120/2800, then the world's thinnest automatic perpetual calendar wristwatch movement. The Calibre 5134, launched in 2015, updated this movement architecture and paired it with 41 mm Royal Oak cases. In 2019, the Calibre 5135—and openworked version of the 5134—hit the scene and went on to power several notable R.O. references, including the Cactus Jack collaboration. The dial of the new Openworked, as mentioned above, is inspired by the neo-vintage pocket watch ref. 25729: Beneath a sapphire crystal, the Calibre 5135's componentry is surmounted by a rehaut and subdial surrounds in a deep blue color overprinted with white indices in a vintage-inspired typeface. Eighteen-karat white gold 'bathtub' hands filled with SuperLumiNova and round silver-grey hour indices ensure excellent visibility, while the signature double-moonphase display executed via metallization on a sapphire disc is based upon a NASA photograph. Like the special editions of the three Calibre 7138-based QPs, the new Openworked features an 'Audemars Piguet' signature executed in a vintage-inspired cursive script on the moon phase indicator, with an additional '150' logo and '1 of 150 pieces' engraving on the sapphire caseback frames. When AP announced that the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar 'John Mayer' would be the last to use the Calibre 5134 in 2024, the watch world held its breath for whatever was coming next. Now that the brand has delivered in the form of the Calibre 7138, we can only imagine a skeletonized version of this fresh movement will be coming down the pike within the next 12 months. In the meantime, the 150th Anniversary Openworked Perpetual Calendar is here to tide over 150 lucky buyers. 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The National
25-02-2025
- Business
- The National
Audemars Piguet unveils groundbreaking perpetual calendar movement on its 150th anniversary
As it celebrates its 150th anniversary, Audemars Piguet has just announced one of the most significant innovations in the world of watch complications: a new generation of self-winding, perpetual calendar movement. Named the Calibre 7138, it allows for the first time access to all the functionality of a perpetual calendar watch through an all-in-one crown. A perpetual calendar watch – also referred to in watch circles as QP, from the initials for the French term quantieme perpetuel – is a mechanical timepiece that tracks and displays an array of calendar information on its dial. This typically includes the day of the week, date of the month, leap years and moon phases. They are some of the most complicated pieces in horology, making them also some of the most expensive. In these new watches from Audemars Piguet, the perpetual calendar, which mechanically reproduces the movement of celestial bodies, has been entirely rethought. 'Astronomy is the mother of watchmaking,' says Sebastian Vivas, heritage and museum director for Audemars Piguet. 'Calendar watches have evolved over time to capture the cycles of celestial bodies with a combination of small cams and gears. Among them, the perpetual calendar, one of the most complex in this category, is like a small mechanical computer on the wrist, capable of keeping the date correct for an entire century.' The brand has some pedigree in this area of watchmaking, creating what are referred to as complicated movements since its founding in Le Brassus, Switzerland, in 1875. The new movement makes its debut on a 41mm Code 11.59 in 18-carat white gold, and on two 41mm Royal Oak models in stainless steel or 18-carat sand gold. Those models are also being offered in anniversary editions limited to 150 pieces each. While at first glance the anniversary versions may look similar to the other pieces being released, they carry a few subtle design cues that mark them apart. Most notably, besides being numbered, they carry a vintage Audemars Piguet signature inspired by archival documents. These are particularly striking on the Royal Oak variations, as the cursive heritage logo contrasts nicely with the legendary model's 1970s octagonal aesthetics. To the uninitiated, it might seem that making control of a few dials through a single crown on the side of a watch is a simple enough task. They would be wrong. The development process took five years to perfect and is protected by five patents. Traditional perpetual calendar watches are usually equipped with correctors inserted in the side of the case, which are activated by using a small tool to adjust the various subdials. This is an age-old system that is pretty cumbersome and fiddly. Watch owners have been known to damage their timepieces by trying to make these adjustments. Most end up taking them to their nearest dealership for maintenance. When the announcement was made on stage in the media preview that all the dials would now be adjustable from a single crown, excited celebratory noises rippled in the auditorium. The watch press – and watch collectors – take things like this very seriously. The new crown incorporates four different positions. The first enables the wearer to wind the watch clockwise. Pulling the crown out one step further allows you to set the date clockwise and to adjust the month and the leap year in the opposite direction. By pulling the crown out again to a third position, the user can set the time bidirectionally. The last position is reached by pushing the crown back one step to set the day and week clockwise and the moon phases counter-clockwise. Again, it sounds simple, but it took five years for the best minds in horology to figure out the mechanism. In 1978, at the height of the quartz crisis, the brand broke a record with the world's thinnest self-winding, perpetual calendar wristwatch of its time, Calibre 2120/2800. Quartz threatened the very survival of watchmaking, as it eliminated the need for complicated mechanics. Hundreds of watchmakers packed up their tools for good during this era in the area surrounding Le Brassus. But Audemars Piguet endured, insisting on making its watches even more mechanical and more complicated. It is easy to think that mechanical watches serve no purpose – after all you can just stare at your phone for an accurate time – but they undeniably serve a deeper meaning. To witness the launch of these watches and be walked through the intricate mechanisms that make up their components, we were invited to spend two nights in the Vallee de Joux. We spent them at Audemars Piguet's own hotel, Hotel des Horlogers, which is alongside its museum and a few steps away from its new factory. Going out for an evening stroll and looking up at the sky, you get a sense of why generation after generation of watchmakers in this area became fascinated with the movement of celestial bodies. On a clear night as you look up you can see what seems like every star in the universe. Living out here 150 years ago, the thought of taming that sky and the eternity it represents through the intricate mechanisms of a watch must have been too much to resist.
