In December 2023, Swiss high-end watchmaking brand Audemars Piguet joined hands with the Cactus Jack brand founded by American music artist Travis Scott to jointly launch a striking limited edition Royal Oak series skeleton perpetual calendar watch. This marks the first time that Audemars Piguet has used brown ceramic material to create a new watch with a diameter of 41 mm. Through the sapphire crystal dial, the hollow self-winding perpetual calendar movement of Caliber 5135 can be clearly displayed.
In order to pay tribute to this cooperation, the watch draws on the design elements of the Cactus Jack brand’s iconic pattern. Among them, some details such as the moon phase display on the dial are decorated with fluorescent coating, which emits blue-green fluorescence in the dark, subtly echoing the fluorescent design features of this trendy fashion brand.
This new limited edition watch perfectly integrates classic complications with modern innovative materials, demonstrating Audemars Piguet’s bold and pioneering creative vision, its spirit of exploration that breaks through the boundaries of fine watchmaking, and its close connection with trend culture over the past 20 years. Deep roots. This is not only a watch, but also a perfect combination of tradition and modernity, bringing an innovative storm to the watch industry.
Cooperation in diverse fields
Audemars Piguet has always carried out diversified cooperation with sports, pop culture, art, film and television and other fields to stimulate collaborative innovation. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Audemars Piguet has established an outstanding reputation in this field through its cooperation with hip-hop and trend culture pioneers such as Jay-Z (2005) and LeBron James (2023). Audemars Piguet has therefore become one of the most frequently mentioned brands in many rap music works. This time, Audemars Piguet teamed up with the Cactus Jack brand to launch a new Royal Oak series hollowed-out perpetual calendar “Cactus Jack” limited edition watch, which creatively blends the unique aesthetic design styles of the two brands.
Audemars Piguet launches the first Royal Oak series watch made of brown ceramic, echoing the iconic color of the Cactus Jack brand. The 41 mm diameter case and bracelet fixing links are made of brown ceramic, which is lightweight and has outstanding scratch resistance.
This ceramic material is made of yttria-stabilized zirconia powder (Zr2O) with a special binder and other metal oxides. After being sintered at high temperatures above 1000°C, it finally takes on a chocolate color. The key to the production process is to ensure uniform and harmonious color, which must be handled with meticulous attention to detail. Subsequently, each component needs to be pre-treated with polishing and satin-finishing, and then fine handcraftsmanship is used to create Audemars Piguet’s signature alternating satin-brushed and polished chamfering effects.
In Travis Scott’s latest album, this new watch is affectionately called “THE CHOCOLATE AP”. The replica luxury watch is embellished with white gold hexagonal screws, and through the sapphire crystal dial, you can appreciate the hollow design of the Caliber 5135 movement. The movement’s rhodium-colored components complement the slim rose gold outer rings of the day, month and date subdials at 9, 12 and 3 o’clock respectively. The three sub-dials are designed to be transparent, subtly displaying part of the movement’s structure. The hour, minute and sub-dial hands are made of solid gold, covered with brown PVD coating and white fluorescent coating, which emits blue fluorescence in the dark. The arrow-shaped pointer indicating the weekly calendar is red, which is more clear and eye-catching under sunlight.
To pay tribute to this cross-border cooperation, a series of design elements of the new cloned timepieces draw inspiration from the Cactus Jack brand’s patterns. The Audemars Piguet design team was inspired by Travis Scott’s hand-drawn watch pictures and specially designed the fonts for the calendar and week display. The shape of the day subdial hands also cleverly echoes the Cactus Jack brand logo. The most eye-catching design on the dial is the moon phase display at 6 o’clock. The traditional moon pattern is replaced by Cactus Jack’s iconic stitched mouth smile pattern, which emits blue fluorescence. In addition, in addition to the day of the week display, other calendar function displays are coated with fluorescent materials that present a unique green fluorescent effect in the dark.
A new textured calfskin strap also makes its debut in this new work, and the rose gold folding buckle is engraved with the logos of the two brands “Audemars Piguet” and “Travis Scott”.
Finally, the words “Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar” (Royal Oak series perpetual calendar watch), “Limited Edition of 200 Pieces” (limited to 200 pieces) are engraved on the bottom of the watch, as well as the words “Utopia” echoing Travis Scott’s latest album. “Utopia is a state of mind” (“Utopia is a state of mind”) is also printed on a movable ring on the strap.
“For me, fine watchmaking is the fusion of precision engineering, fashion aesthetics, cutting-edge technology and creative design, creating a beautiful harmony of precise craftsmanship and precise timing. This collaboration has the same purpose as music sampling and beat creation. It also draws inspiration from classics and injects new ideas to create a future-looking work. This is also the first creative encounter between the classic Royal Oak series and hip-hop trend culture, and the result is very surprising. This is my good friend François- Henry Bennahmias’s final chapter as Audemars Piguet’s global CEO is of extraordinary significance and marks the end of a great journey he has led. The future will be even more worth looking forward to!”
Travis Scott
Music artist, founder of Cactus Jack brand
Automatic oscillating weight engraved with CACTUS JACK brand logo
The new Royal Oak series skeleton perpetual calendar “Cactus Jack” limited edition watch is equipped with Caliber 5135 self-winding movement, which can automatically adjust the number of days in each month and accurately display the date in leap years. As long as it is wound regularly, the watch will not need to be manually corrected until 2100 to keep it consistent with the Gregorian calendar.
Through the brown ceramic and sapphire crystal case back, you can admire the exquisite finishing details of the movement, including circular satin finishing, satin brushing, sandblasting, sunray pattern and polished chamfering. The 22K rose gold hollow automatic oscillating weight is satin brushed and polished and chamfered, and is engraved with the two brand logos of “Audemars Piguet” and “Cactus Jack”. The center of the oscillating weight is decorated with the Cactus Jack brand logo, adding the finishing touch to this cross-border work.
To maintain consistency with solar time, the Gregorian calendar (Gregorian calendar) omits three leap years every 400 years. For this purpose, February 29 of the century year needs to be omitted. The century year can be evenly divisible by 100, but not by 400. Therefore, 2100 is not a leap year, and the date of the perpetual calendar watch needs to be adjusted forward by one day.