Cracking the Code: Inside the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Collection

Every year at SIHH, it seems the attending watch media comes in with the same two nagging questions about Audemars Piguet: Is the brand ever going to expand its scope beyond its mega-popular and emblematic Royal Oak collections? And is it ever going to debut a watch with a fully in-house-manufactured, integrated chronograph caliber? Well, this year AP answered both of those questions in the affirmative with the much-discussed launch of an entirely new collection, called Code 11.59 No less than six in-house calibers, three of them new, are integrated into the 13 new models that make up the collection Four variations are also available here, each outfitted with a lacquered three-register dial with 12-hour counter at 3 o'clock, 30-minute counter at 9 o'clock, running seconds at 6 o'clock, and a 4:30 date window: two in rose gold with blue or black dial, two in white gold with blue or black dial.

Inside a 41-mm case of 18k rose gold beats the self-winding manufacture caliber 5134, the same movement that drives the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar introduced a few years back Haute horlogerie decorations abound on the movement, including côtes de Genève, snailing, and hand-polished bevels, plus an openworked rotor made from the same gold as the case, which remains at the same relatively modest 41-mm dimensions as its less complicated brethren in the collection Completing the collection at the pinnacle of high horology is the Minute Repeater Supersonnerie, in an 18k white gold case and a smoked blue enamel dial whose relative simplicity belies its inner complexity.

Audemars Piguet has, as is obvious by the breadth and versatility of this lineup, put quite a bit of effort and staked quite a bit of cred on the release of the Code 11.59 collection later this year. . Source