Audemars Piguet Unveil Royal Oak ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’ Ceramic Collection

Audemars Piguet are steadily expanding the breadth of ceramic colours on offer across the Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore collections by introducing a new colour series. It’s a dark blue shade known as ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’, which is significant in AP’s heritage as it was the colour used on the dial of the original Royal Oak. The ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’ ceramic collection includes a Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked and two Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronographs.

Ceramic is a notoriously difficult material to work with, especially when it comes to colour. Due to the intense firing process it’s virtually impossible to predict how pigment will react, meaning that it takes a huge amount of experimentation to perfect a pigment that will create a consistent colour throughout the watch in a repeatable manner. AP say the ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’ ceramic has taken several years to develop, meaning it has been in the works since before the reveal of the electric blue and brown ceramic that it joins. I really like the dark, navy blue colour so it was worth the effort.

Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked 41mm

The first of the watches to feature the new colour of ceramic is the Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked. It’s one of AP’s classic haute horology skeleton watches with the calibre 3132. While it has only a 3-hand time display, it’s much more impressive thanks to the double balance, which you can see at 8 o’clock, which alleviates some of the timing inaccuracies that can be experienced by single balance watches caused by shocks and small disruptions.

The case measures 41mm in diameter with a thickness of 9.7mm in the new ceramic. The vertical brushing looks really nice across the case and bracelet in combination with the polished edges. Achieving multiple finishes in ceramic is very impressive.

Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph 42mm

The Royal Oak Offshore is the standard RO’s sportier cousin, featuring multiple chronograph and dive watch variants. For the ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’ edition they’ve chosen the Selfwinding Chronograph 42 model with its vertical tricompax chronograph display. The dial features the signature Mega Tapisserie pattern decorated with additional vertical engraving in the same colour as the case, though for the dial it’s achieved with PVD instead of ceramic.

Inside, it’s equipped with the 4404 selfwinding flyback chronograph movement. Flyback means that you can stop, reset and start the chronograph complication with a single pusher press, so that you can time multiple sequences in a row without pausing. Useful for timing multiple laps or aviation navigation.

Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph 43mm

Last up is a bi-material edition of the Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph 43mm. It’s the largest of the ‘Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50’ models with a case that’s primarily made of stainless steel with only a ceramic bezel, crown and pushers. That gives it the most industrial vibe of the collection thanks to the exposed steel that matches the hexagonal screws.

It has a traditional tricompax chronograph display with a 30-minute counter, 12-hour counter and small seconds. Like the full ceramic 42mm version above, the Mega Tapisserie dial has the vertical engraving texture adding some extra visual interest.

More details at Audemars Piguet.

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