The first time I saw Audemars Piguet’s new Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon in Sand Gold, I thought I was looking at stainless steel. AP had just announced the UK 1:1 replica watches, a mix of materials to create a new gold alloy that’s a softer hue between pink and white. But in the bright blue lights of a convention hall, the watch looked completely white. As it made its way around the circle of press at the event, only when I got it up close, under a bit of shadow, did the rosy tones start to come out of the case. For “just a new material,” it was pretty impressive. But I figured that it was a one-time experience, like learning how a magic trick was done.
The second time I saw luxury fake Audemars Piguet‘s new Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon watches for sale in Sand Gold, I thought I was looking at stainless steel. I was at another press preview, this time in New York when I saw my friend Perri Dash working on a wrist roll in the shade. “It’s cool that they brought out the stainless steel version,” I thought to myself. Then I got closer. You know what they say, “Fool me once…”
Any other batch of releases and the new 26735SG (for “Sand Gold”) would have easily been the watch that grabbed the most attention. It certainly caught my eye, but as someone who loves the Royal Oak, I’m never quite sure how the audience will react. This time, the top replica watches was the “With Special Guest” to John Mayer’s top billing with his show-stopping Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, so I expected it to get overshadowed. Then there’s the fact that it’s easy to dismiss the watch – like I said before – as “just a new material.” That’s why I was, frankly, pleasantly surprised by the fact that the few photos I posted of the watch on Instagram seemed to really resonate.
Detractors aren’t completely wrong. The 26735ST (“ST” for steel) was the first openworked Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon, released back in 2022, so the movement here isn’t new. If that’s all that gets you excited, you might be bored, but from my standpoint, the caliber 2972 is nothing ever to be disappointed in. It has a beautifully semi-symmetrical architecture that’s clean, clear, and intentional in a way that tells you the caliber was designed to be skeletonized from the start. With all that’s going on in the movement, the flying tourbillon is still the center point, standing proud at 6:00. And while skeletonized watches are never the most legible, the geometric pattern means you can more easily tell the hands and movement apart. To me, all that bumped the 2972 quickly to the top of the class, setting the standard for openworked (or skeletonized) luxury copy watches back in 2022.
So sure, the most important thing to note with the new ref. 26735SG is the new sand gold material, but it’s not all just about color. When I wrote about the watch a few weeks ago, I missed a brief mention in the press release that AP’s new sand gold should be more color-fast and durable over time. While not many people (myself included) have to worry about the durability of rose gold, it’s particularly finicky and prone to fading when exposed to salt water or chlorine. Very few brands have solved that issue, Rolex and Omega being two of the notable exceptions.
And while it isn’t all about color, it certainly is a big selling point. Almost all gold used in watchmaking is 18k or 14k alloys, made harder and more durable by mixing other materials with pure gold. Choosing what materials you use can lend colorfastness, hardness, and shift color. While these mixes are now closely studied, tested, and checked for impurities that might impact the final product, back before the early to mid-1900s, this kind of gold mixing was wild and free. It’s not uncommon to see four-color gold cases (bonus point who can name the fourth color besides yellow, white, and rose), and often, if you see white gold cases (on Cartier, for instance) made before the 1950s, it’s actually rhodium-plated yellow gold.
These proprietary color mixes are part of why it’s so fun to debate things like who has the best rose gold on the market (ahem AP ahem) or talk about why A. Lange & Söhne’s Honey Gold case is so special. Speaking of Honey Gold, it’s a great jumping-off point for the new Sand Gold. While Lange’s mix is a pinkish hue trending toward a soft yellow, Sand Gold is even softer. The beige tone definitely trends toward white gold, thanks to the balance of 20 percent copper and five percent palladium used to strengthen the 18k gold case. I called it “very Loro Piana,” a reference on my mind as I walked past a very beige display at their boutique in Milan just before seeing the new high quality replica watches. But it’s as “quiet luxury” as a loud watch like a gold Royal Oak can get.
This continues my perception of Audemars Piguet’s materials science dominance. Sure, other brands were often first. IWC, for instance, released the first ceramic-cased watch with the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar in 1986 and currently makes some of the most budget-friendly ceramic Swiss made fake watches. But AP has made ceramic and other materials like frosted gold such an inextricable part of their brand identity that people clamor for their ceramic watches in a way you don’t see for anyone else. When AP pulled out of Only Watch last year, their proposed watch was basically the same Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon but in ceramic with blued titanium bridges. I heard from more than one AP client who tried incredibly hard to buy it, saying to AP, “Name your price.” But their success isn’t just with ceramic. When AP was testing its Concept Supersonnerie RD#1, the brand used the worst material imaginable, the incredibly dense and terrible-sounding platinum. It takes a lot to bend the material to your will that way and yet it’s still one of the best-sounding repeaters I’ve heard.
In this case, we must credit AP’s partner, PX Précinox La Chaux-de-Fonds, which developed the gold alloy. AP has no proprietary rights to the gold, but they did create the name for this product. As for using it this well, well that’s all AP.
The use of Sand Gold has even improved the great caliber 2972. The hands and markers (in white gold) have even more contrast against the movement, with the bridges treated with a sand-gold hue to match the case while standing out from the gears and barrels, which are rhodium-toned. Oh, and maybe I’m the only one who found this funny, but the rotor is technically made from 18k pink gold, though that’s been rhodium-toned as well, making it essentially white gold.
The most important thing, however, is how AP has pulled off the magic trick that has fooled me one too many times. The best way to illustrate it is in the pictures above, and the examples below.
I try incredibly hard to have consistent lighting and color across all my images. I spend hours on it in post-production, in addition to using a lighting set-up that I color-correct before I even take my first image. Any reflective material plays off its environment; that’s how the physics of light works. For the physics or photography nerds out there, you’ll know that in polished metal, the angle of incidence (light coming in) equals the angle of reflection (light coming out), and whatever else is in the environment impacts the color (whatever is at a 90-degree angle from the polished metal will cast a color on it). A color cast can still be prominent even with brushed metal, like many facets on the Royal Oak. But I’ve never experienced a color shift when shooting a watch as much as I have with Sand Gold. Placed on a piece of brown leather, the AAA super clone watches seemed to play off the environment’s more yellow and red hues, landing on something close to AP’s current rose gold mix.
But look what happened when I took it outside on a cold day with direct and cool light. While hard light is terrible for taking photos of replica watches online – creating contrast and weird shadows – you can see why I continue to be fooled by the new Flying Tourbillon. In fact, when I asked to grab the watch and take these pictures, someone else absent-mindedly picked up a nearby white gold 16204 (Jumbo openworked) before realizing they weren’t holding a tourbillon in their hand. It was incredibly validating – or at least comforting – knowing I wasn’t losing my mind.
What you’ll see most of the time is something in between, a gorgeous Royal Oak as you see below. At 41mm by 10.4mm thick, it’s not the quintessential Royal Oak size (the 39mm x 8.1mm Jumbo by which all other Royal Oaks are measured), but it’s not far off either. On my 7.25″ wrist, it arguably is the more “correct” size for my frame despite my (often obnoxious) obsession with the Jumbo. If this is the Swiss movements replica watches I had to wear, I wouldn’t complain about it in fit or finish. But at a rumored $270,000+ and estimated less than 100 pieces being made one year, I won’t hold my breath at ever seeing one in the wild for a long time.