Audemars Piguet: The Royal Oak Carbon Concept

Carbon fibre has been the preferred material for high-performance applications that demand sturdiness. Formula 1 race cars, America’s Cup yachts and, even aerospace vehicles, have fully leveraged the material’s technical properties: strength and lightness.
Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet is a pioneer according to the use of carbon fibre for function as well as form. The Royal Oak Carbon Concept is surprisingly light thanks to materials such as forged carbon, amorphous carbon coatings, ceramics, titanium, and anodized aluminium, which forms the watch’s green central bridge. The absence of a dial provides a full view of the hand-wound Caliber 2895 movement’s key components: the tourbillon carriage—comprising more than 70 parts yet weighing a mere 0.45 grams—and the column wheel, which is the chronograph’s nerve centre. Audemars presents a novel twist on the 30-minute chronograph with a linear minute counter consisting of two columnar scales, with tens of minutes on the left and single minutes on the right. Tiny windows that correspond to each numeral mark elapsed time by changing from white to black. The wearer shifts from winding to time-setting by adjusting the stem.




Technical data:

Movement
Calibre: 2895, hand-wound with tourbillon
Total diameter: 151/3 lignes (34.60 mm)
Casing-diameter: 33.80 mm
Thickness: 12.01 mm
34 jewels
384 parts
Power reserve: 237 hours
Cadence of the balance:
21,600 vibrations per hour
Finishing: hand-polished bevelling, sides hand-drawn with a file, matt surface, sapphire-blasted
Carbon mainplate, eloxed aluminium bridges

Case
Forged carbon
Ceramic bezel
Caseback ring in black PVD-coated titanium
Diameter: 44 mm
Total thickness: 15.85 mm
Sapphire crystal caseback
Water-resistance: 100 m

Display
Integrated onto the movement
Graduated dial ring with luminescent hour-markers and white minute markers
Openworked luminescent hour and minute hands

Strap
Hand-sewn alligator leather with large square scales,
AP folding clasp in titanium

Functions
Hours and minutes
Linear chronograph minute counter with central sweep seconds hand
Power-reserve indication
Selection indicator