This week, the Palexpo facility in Geneva, Switzerland, will become the center of the watch world for the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, or SIHH, a luxury watch show rivaled only by BaselWorld in relevance and prestige. We’ve got a team on the ground, there to bring you the most exciting releases. Follow our coverage here, and also be sure to check out Instagram. We’ll be posting to our feed throughout the week.
Upshot: The Royal Oak RD#2 is, simply put, an astounding piece of horological handiwork. At just 6.3mm, it’s the thinnest perpetual calendar watch in the world (about 2mm thinner than the brand’s Royal Oak Extra-Thin Jumbo). According to the brand, the RD#2 took five years to complete and required taking a traditionally “three-story” movement and putting it on one flat level. The result? A movement that’s a mere 2.89 mm thick. It’s also an automatic.
Who It’s For: Nobody. This is strictly a concept and there are no plans as of now to put the RD#2 into production.
First Impressions: Like other super-thin watches, the RD#1 is mindblowing to see firsthand, especially when you consider how complex that tiny movement is underneath. What’s perhaps most impressive, though, is that despite it pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in mechanical watchmaking, it looks like an actual production watch you could buy at a boutique. The 41mm case is made from 950 Platinum and the dial features the blue hobnail texturing — classic Royal Oak.
Insight: It’s a bummer that this isn’t a watch you can actually buy, but it should hopefully pave the way for other ultra-thins from Audemars Piguet in the future. In the meantime, if you do want a really, really thin Perpetual Calendar, you can turn to Vacheron Constantin’s Overseas Perpetual Calendar, which is similarly slim at just 8.1mm thick.
More from SIHH 2018
See more of our favorite new releases from Geneva. Read the Story
