Exquisite Skeleton Craftsmanship - One of Audemars Piguet’s Specialties

Since the 1930s, skeleton craftsmanship has become one of Audemars Piguet's specialties, an art that cleverly balances aesthetics and functionality. The skeleton craft requires reducing the material of the movement's main plate and bridges as much as possible, allowing light to fully penetrate the movement without affecting the function, showing the exquisite beauty of the internal structure. This requires a combination of professional watchmaking skills, a thorough grasp of materials, and exquisite finishing techniques.

In the early 1970s, several young Audemars Piguet watchmakers, inspired by their predecessors, began to rediscover the skeleton craft that had been increasingly obscured since the 1950s, and the brand's first skeleton workshop was established. Georges Golay, then president of Audemars Piguet, had a unique vision and set an ambitious challenge for the craftsmen to create 100 Calibre 2120 skeleton movements. This is a task that requires meticulous craftsmanship, and each movement takes 150 hours to make. The first watch equipped with this movement (Ref.5442) was launched in November 1973, and the annual production was about 30 pieces until 1976. In 1978, the brand produced a total of 300 skeleton watches equipped with Calibre 2120 movement. By 1984, the workshop had more than ten craftsmen.

When the Royal Oak series watches were first launched, the movement was still hidden behind the case. Under the wave of quartz watches, watchmaking norms were subverted, and watchmakers began to think about how to reveal the structural beauty of mechanical movements and show the exquisite connotation of traditional watchmaking skills. In 1981, the Royal Oak series introduced the skeleton design for the first time, launching the Ref.5710BA pendant watch, followed by the Ref.25636 watch equipped with the ultra-thin perpetual calendar movement Calibre 2120/2800 in 1986. However, it was not until the 1990s, as the Royal Oak series launched a variety of watches with different shapes and sizes, that the hollowing technique was truly widely used in the series, and was first used in the "Jumbo" watch in 1992.

After decades of evolution and innovation, the Royal Oak series has launched more than 50 hollow watches to date, with different movements, sizes, materials and styles, showing the watchmaking passion and professional craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation for decades. The best Audemars Piguet Royal Oak replica watches at captainthewatch.is.