If the cacophony of colour in Audemars Piguet’s recent Royal Oak Offshore Music Edition was not to your taste, and your taste runs to coloured stones but in a single colour and in greater quantity, meet the new Royal Oak Automatic Rainbow, the latest in the brand’s use of ‘rainbow gem-setting’, which has tended towards being bezel-based.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Oak, Audemars Piguet had launched two new gemstone-set Royal Oak Automatic sets in 37mm (9.8mm thick) and 41mm (10.4mm thick) white gold cases. They are water resistant to 20m and have open case backs.

Each size ‘collection’ comprises of ten white gold timepieces, each of which is covered with a different baguette-cut gemstone. The 41mm models each have 861 stones (between 30 and 47 carats) and there are 790 stones (between 21 to 37 carats) in each of the 37mm models.

Gem-setting has been done by long-time Audemars Piguet partner Salanitro, and the dials at 18kt white gold underneath all the stones. The hands are white gold and lumed.

The precious stones in these new models are orange spessartite, ruby, amethyst, pink tourmaline, tanzanite, blue topaz, blue sapphire, emerald, tsavorite, and yellow chrysoberyl. For those keeping/ not keeping track, the gemstones in the aforementioned Music Edition were rubies, peridots, tsavorites, green, blue and orange sapphires.

Inside is the smaller model is the automatic Audemars Piguet Calibre 5909 which beats at 28,800VPH and has a power reserve of 60 hours. The 41mm variant uses the automatic Calibre 4309 which beats at 28,800VPH and has a power reserve of 70 hours.

There is a special “50-years” commemorative rotor in rhodium-toned 22kt rose gold. Finishing on both movements includes Côtes de Genève, satin brushing, circular graining, and traits tirés.

The new Royal Oak Automatic Rainbows come on a18kt white gold bracelet set with matching precious stones and a white gold AP folding clasp.

[Photo credit: Audemars Piguet]

Categories: Audemars Piguet, Limited Editions, Watch Profile, watches, Women's watches