Orangedial shares a detailed photo-essay from Audemars Piguet's 2017 novelties trunk show in Singapore, offering collectors a personal, hands-on perspective. His report highlights key new releases and provides candid impressions, making these pieces discoverable to a wider audience.
It is the time of the year when AP organises the round-the-world trunk show to showcase their latest timepieces announced at SIHH. Together with a few avid AP collectors, we had the privilege to be hosted by the AP Orchard Road Boutique to closely inspect the new timepieces over champagne and delicious hors d'oeuvres.
I have many photos to share with you from this trip, along with some personal comments about the timepieces. But before I start bombarding you with the pictures, I would like to express my gratitude to the AP boutique team, especially Teresa, for her utmost hospitality and tireless efforts shuttling up and down between levels to satisfy our requests to view and compare different timepieces. Kudos to her professionalism and hardwork!
Now, back to the story. I'll do my usual photo-essay to bring you through what we had experienced on that wonderful Saturday afternoon. I won't be quoting the model references as you can look for them in AP's website. Without further ado, let the discovery begins!
Trays of AP goodies among champagne and snacks. The RG RO Openworked with double balance wheels was not part of the 2017 collection, but the glamorous piece was rare enough to be included for viewing and comparison!
So, first of all, what was missing from this trunk show? Regretfully, it was the full ceramic RO perpetual calendar! It was the hype of SIHH, everyone was eager to see it. But it was an MIA (Missing In Action)! Were we disappointed? Maybe a little at first, but we were soon cheered up by other interesting pieces in the trays...
Quite frankly, the first timepiece from the 2017 novelties that triggered my huge interest was the new Royal Oak with frosted gold finishing. The unique finishing gives the watch a splendid diamond-like glitter, a perfect jewellery for the ladies. The rough surface may very well be highly scratch-resistance too.
Of couse, the frosted gold Royal Oaks are marketed as lady's collection. But the 37mm white gold variant doesn't look bad on a man's wrist, and perfectly fine for men who like and able to carry the glitter on their wrists
After the success of stainless steel and rose gold versions of the Royal Oak Extra Thin "jumbo", AP continues the yellow gold fever by offering the RO jumbo in this everlasting precious metal with a choice of either the signature blue dial or a new yellow gold dial. On display here was the blue dial variant. I must say the yellow gold and blue dial combo is as bold and striking as it can be. But this exclusive timepiece may not suit every skin-tone.
This year there are also an abundance of offering from the Royal Oak Chronograph collection. A notable disappointmemt for me is the absence of the long-awaited in-house chronograph movement, which AP has openly mentioned for quite a few years but obviously needs some more time to perfect the movement before production. So, the new ROCs are still powered by the proven Frederic Piguet integrated chronograph movement, but gotten a facelift this year for a sharper look. If you notice close enough, there is a subtle change on the chronograph second hand. Can you tell the detail?
Steel ROCs:
RG ROCs:
Among all the ROCs, the most fascinating one is none other than the fresh and bold combo of Titanium and Platinum ROC. The platinum parts are mirror-polished, as opposed to the traditional Royal Oak finishing with vertical brushed lines, and it gives the watch a unique 2-tone look. The grey dial with electric-blue subdials was stunning to look at. With Titanium as the material for the case and bracelet, this watch is really comfortable to wear. It is easily one of the best offerings in the 2017 collection in my book
AP has some controversial offering in the Royal Oak Offshore lines of watches this year, especially the colourful rendition of some classic ROOs such as the Diver and the Tourbillon Chronograph with peripheral winding system. We had a chance to see some of the new Divers on this occasion, and the most daring lime green Diver was showcased. It is really an acquired taste for such colourful piece. Personally, I would prefer the design of a diver watch to remain as "toolish" as it can be to reflect the original purpose of the timepiece. It is perfectly fine to experiment the Divers with various tough (and cool looking) materials such as titanium, ceramic, tantalum, etc. But with too colourful an execution, it risks the supposedly professional and highly technical Royal Oak Diver watch (300m water resistance!) to become merely an expensive fashion accessories which I dread to associate with.
The 44mm ROO Novelties also received a facelift this year, especially the RG and full ceramic versions. AP also introduces a new 44mm ROO with a titanium case. Admittedly, my reaction was luke-warm when looking at the press photos. But I changed my views after seeing the real pieces in metals. They are fantastic, looking sharper and more precisely executed. I tend to think that the new RG piece was less attractive than the original one due to lesser contrast from the black subdials. But it does look attractive by itself especially up-close to it. For the full ceramic ROO, the golden details on the new dial and those subtle blue tips on the hands really bring out the strong character of this all-black timepiece.
As for the new titanium ROO Novelty, it is the most comfortable piece to wear despite the big size, thanks to the lightness of titanium, and the greyish dial with the enough amount of red details on the tips of the hands just makes this watch a very easy choice for a perfect daily wear.
We didn't really pay much attention to the ladies collection besides the frosted gold Royal Oak. But one other piece that caught my brief attention was this beautiful Lady Royal Oak in stainless steel with several stealth features: A beautiful electric blue dial, a nice platinum bezel with diamonds setting, mirror-polished platinum bracelet links and a respectable price tag
Well, that's all I have to share from the 2017 collection! Before ending this long thread, I would also like to show a picture or two of the very exclusive 41mm RG Royal Oak Openworked with double balance wheels. This was the first time I saw this watch in metal, and I was thrilled to try it on. Easily my dream piece!
Thanks for reading this far, my friends!
Best,
Wayne
