Exotic materials are all the rage these days, as watchmakers scout their traditional hunting grounds for wizard new combinations in cars and planes, while keeping a beady eye on emerging medical devices and tracking developments at Nasa.
With Rado leading the way in developing scratch-resistant materials with the release in 1962 of its now-classic Diastar, the hunt for the new and different has led watchmakers to exotic metals like palladium, magnesium and silicium, and to any number of resins, alloys and ceramics.
Audemars Piguet is among the luxury brands that has invested heavily in producing its own high-tech materials and that payout is paying off handsomely. Take the latest version of its Royal Oak Offshore, which is billed as a forged carbon number but which is actually a painstakingly and skilfully designed amalgam of different traditional and non-traditional materials that is way more than the sum of its parts.
So, the bezel comes in polished ceramic, as do the strap links. The crown and pushers are rubber-coated. The back of the case is hardened steel. And invisible to the naked eye, almost as a gift to the initiated, the rotor is solid gold.
As Audemars Piguet would say, of course, the material issue with the latest Royal Oak Offshore is its use of forged carbon for the case. AP has been using forged carbon since 2007, employing a steel die to conjure complex shapes. It may not be the first to have gone this route, but it is gradually perfecting its use of a light, durable material that has the look of steel and a smoothness all its own.
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