Audemars Piguet celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Royal Oak in a grand way earlier this year with a range of new products. A new jumbo appeared, and a large number of long-sellers dressed in trendy colors appeared. The movement’s rotor is engraved with the number 50. Anyone could guess that the design would change from next year. The 50th anniversary models quickly disappeared from the market. It’s like pouring oil into today’s overheated clock boom that makes you dizzy. With it or not, Audemars Piguet seems unwilling to end the party. While the eyes of watch enthusiasts and stakeholders were focused on Watches & Wonders Geneva 2022, the Manufacture of Le Brasus took out a watch as if indifferent. The Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Extra-Thin RD#3 (RD#3) is the first model to feature a self-winding tourbillon movement in jumbo, the root of the Royal Oak, and the third product in the RD series.

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Regarded as one of the greatest achievements of Gérald Genta’s legacy, Royal Oak has been a strong supporter of Audemars Piguet for the past 50 years. With an octagonal bezel inspired by a diver’s helmet and ship’s porthole, an integrated bracelet that connects to the case and a tapestry dial filled with a square guilloche pattern, the concept of a luxury sports watch is based on unprecedented design and identity. Royal oaks have subdivided in size and function over time, forming a huge family. Among them, the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra scene is the most popular among the Royal Oaks due to its symbolism that it inherits the original model, and it is not so easy to obtain. What sets the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra scene apart is its size. With a diameter of 39mm and a thickness of 8.1mm, it is on the thin side for a sports watch. Its thickness is comparable to that of a dress watch, so it can fit into any outfit and has a great fit that sports watches tend to miss. All this was possible due to the use of an ultra-thin self-winding movement called Caliber 2121 in the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra-thin. This year, replica Audemars Piguet replaces caliber 2121 with caliber 7121, which, as is usual with older movements, has several technical shortcomings. Instead, the case of the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra-thin was not touched. The Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra-thin means size matters.
The Royal Oak self-winding tourbillon extra-thin RD#3 was created with this in mind. Although self-winding and even a tourbillon is included, the stainless steel case is 39mm in diameter, the same as the Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra Thin, and is only 8mm thinner by 0.1mm. That’s why RD#3 is in the name.
Audemars Piguet’s RD series is a concept car when it comes to cars. Although it is not for sale, it can guide the model to be marketed in the future and measure the technology. Audemars Piguet was launched in 2015 and 2018 respectively with the Royal Oak Concept Minute Repeater Supersonnerie RD#1 and the Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra Thin RD#2. The prototype of the Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin RD#2) has been released. The Royal Oak Concept RD#1 was a waterproof repeater watch that provided the technological foundation for the Super Sonnerie. The Royal Oak self-winding perpetual calendar ultra-thin RD#2, which placed a perpetual calendar mechanism on one layer to limit the thickness of the case to 6mm, was upgraded the following year and released as an official product. All of these were acclaimed models that broke new ground in complications and won the Geneva Watch Grand Prix (GPHG), but they did not inherit the title of “Jumbo”.
The self-winding caliber 2968, perfectly timed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Royal Oak, was completed after five years of development. The key was to design the movement thin enough to fit inside the case of the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra-thin. There was the Caliber 2950 on a Royal Oak self-winding flying tourbillon 41 mm, but to become a partner in the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra scene, a whole new movement was needed. With this in mind, it is highly likely that Audemars Piguet developed caliber 2968 and caliber 7121, which will be applied from this year on in the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra-thin (Ref. 16202). If you put the two movements side by side, you can see that they have almost identical construction. Caliber 7121 is 3.2 mm thick. Caliber 2968 is 3.4mm thicker by 0.2mm. Tourbillon takes up a lot of space and is a factor that makes the watch thick. However, Audemars Piguet spent only 0.2mm on adding a tourbillon.
To reduce the thickness in a confined space like a watch, you need to make the parts smaller and thinner. Or it should be removed altogether. Audemars Piguet’s watchmakers redesigned the tourbillon. At the bottom of the cage of a traditional tourbillon there is a wheel to rotate the cage. Audemars Piguet devised a peripheral drive system in which this wheel connected to wheel 3 was eliminated and a cog wheel to rotate the flying tourbillon cage was installed horizontally with the flying tourbillon cage. In addition, the flying tourbillon cage was made of titanium and the arms of the balance wheel were made wider. This makes the balance wheel thinner while still maintaining operational stability. Because it is light, the energy transfer efficiency is also good. As we saw in Caliber 7121, we reduced the thickness of the balance wheel to the limit by replacing the error-correcting balance screw with a round weight. Finally, the escapement has been redesigned to make the movement more visible. After all these efforts, Audemars Piguet was able to place the flying tourbillon cage in line with the dial.
The Geneva stripes are not visible on the plates and bridges of the rhodium-plated openwork movement. The voids are filled in by the vertical stripes seen in the case finishing. It is a detail to give a modern and special impression. The rotor is adorned with the number 50 to commemorate the half-century of the Royal Oak. The frequency per hour is 21,600 vph (3 Hz) and the power reserve is 50 hours.
The rest of the configuration is identical to the Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra-scene, except that the AP logo at 6 o’clock on the dial is replaced by a flying tourbillon and the date window at 3 o’clock has disappeared. Super-LumiNova is applied to the indexes and needles in the shape of a thin bathtub. The Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50 dial, infused with a Petite Tapisserie pattern, recognizes “jumbo” at a glance. One thing to point out is the way the dial is manufactured. It is said that PVD method was chosen instead of the conventional method of coloring with electroplating in a galvanic bath. This ensures that the dial tone and color are consistent and will not fade for a long time.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Self-Winding Tourbillon Extra Thin RD#3 is a concept watch, so there is no selling price. It is also unknown whether or not it will be released as a full product. But it is too early to be disappointed. Audemars Piguet will transfer the innovation shown in this watch to the Royal Oak 37mm model this September.