Audemars Piguet Goes All-In on the Royal Oak’s Most Iconic Color

Feeling bleu.

Close-up of a dark blue brushed metal watch band with a textured watch face on an orange background.

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Launched by Audemars Piguet in 1972 as the world’s first luxury steel sports watch, there’s a lot that’s iconic about the Royal Oak.

Gérald Genta’s legendary design pioneered the integrated-bracelet genre. It set a new standard for finishing in a steel watch. Its octagonal bezel secured with eight exposed screws is instantly recognizable. And then there’s the watch’s petite tapisserie dial, with its clous-de-paris pattern originally rendered in a shade of deep blue that will forever be linked to the Royal Oak.

That blue hue has a specific name: Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50, and last year, AP celebrated its 150th anniversary by crafting three Royal Oak watches out of ceramic in the same shade for the first time.

Now, the brand is once again working with its ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’ ceramic, this time using it to craft a very blue, er, bleu, Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon.

Blue Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch with a textured dial, silver hour markers, and visible tourbillon mechanism. — AP brings back its spectacular Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50 ceramic for another Royal Oak.

Fly away

The trio of Royal Oaks released in ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage’ 50 ceramic last year included a Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked and two Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronographs.

But as those watches had either a skeletonized dial or a mega tapisserie dial, we were denied the full Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50 overload of combining the new ceramic with a classic tapisserie dial in the same color.

Well, now that day has gotten a bit closer with AP’s latest Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50 effort, the Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon in ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage’ 50 ceramic.

Blue Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch with octagonal bezel, silver hour markers, and visible tourbillon mechanism. — The case and bracelet are crafted from ceramic that’s the same shade as the dial, which was the color used on the first Royal Oak’s dial in 1972.

The watch’s 41mm octagonal case (which measures just 10.6mm thick) and integrated bracelet are both crafted from ceramic in the iconic blue shade (a matching process that took AP several years to perfect before last year’s release), only now they’re paired with a grande tapisserie dial in the same color.

While not quite the classic petite tapisserie, the grande tapisserie pattern features far smaller squares on the dial than the mega tapisserie dials we got last year, bringing it much more in line with the classic Royal Oak’s look than last year’s chronographs and skeleton dial for maximum Bleu Nuit vibes.

Close-up of a blue Audemars Piguet watch face with silver hour markers and visible tourbillon mechanism. — The 6:00 tourbillon interrupts the case and dial’s Bleu Nuit party.

Well, almost maximum.

There is a significant chunk cut out of the dial at 6:00 to make way for the Calibre 2950 automatic movement’s flying tourbillon, which makes one full rotation every second and appears to float without any supporting structure, as is the nature of “flying” tourbillons. The rest of the dial is filled out with 18K white gold hands and indices filled with Super-LumiNova.

Blue Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch showing detailed mechanical movement through transparent case back. — The tourbillon’s flight path can also be viewed through the sapphire exhibition caseback.

Availability and pricing

I think the ultimate expression of ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’ ceramic would be in a classic “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Royal Oak. This would be a perfect symphony of midnight blue; the most iconic Royal Oak format all dressed up in its most iconic color.

Whether we’ll ever get fully blued in such a fashion remains to be seen, but for now, this Flying Tourbillon feels like a pretty good placeholder. The watch, Reference Ref. 26730CD.OO.1225CD.01, is available now from Audemars Piguet, with pricing available upon request.

About the Author:

Johnny Brayson is an editor at Gear Patrol mostly covering watches. He enjoys watches that are packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em details and believes nearly every watch could stand to be a tad smaller.

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