Style Edit: Audemars Piguet debuts a Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar innovation at Dubai Watch Week
The luxury Swiss horology brand has been creating coveted perpetual calendars since 1948 – and just launched a new technology
The storied house of Audemars Piguet has long been responsible for making some of the most coveted perpetual calendars available, starting with 1948’s legendary reference 5516 and progressing through all-time classics like the Royal Oak 5402ST, introduced in 1972. As with all perpetual calendars, though, these watches were fiddly to set, calling for specialised tools and expertise – or at least, that was the case until now.
The latest innovation from Audemars Piguet makes setting and winding the latest 41mm Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar a cinch. An intelligent watch box deploys a combination of robotics and AI; it can automatically identify which calendar indications require adjustment and take care of everything itself, without the need for user intervention.
The intelligent watch box was developed by industrial design legend Max Terio with robotics and AI pioneers Dubai Future Labs. It was presented for the first time during Dubai Watch Week – and it wasn’t the maison’s only dazzling innovation at the leading horological event.
As part of its global 150th anniversary celebrations, Audemars Piguet also brought its travelling “House of Wonders” exhibition to the event. Illuminating the manufacturer’s rich past, the immersive spectacle guides visitors through a recreation of its historic headquarters, followed by a series of rooms that encompass everything from historical and contemporary timepieces to documents that shed light on the brand’s history to an evocation of its home in the beautiful Jura region of Switzerland.
