There’s an interesting cycle when it comes to high tech materials in watchmaking. When a material first appears on the scene it’s often the case that said material will be used in its most quintessential form with little additional embellishment. However, once the material starts to see wider use in the industry, brands are better equipped to experiment with aesthetics and design. For example, you have Hublot who push the boundaries with coloured sapphire cases and IWC’s mastery of ceramic. Now it’s Audemars Piguet’s turn to experiment with coloured forged carbon as part of the new Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date.
To be clear, coloured carbon is not exactly brand new, Richard Mille have been doing it for years. What is new here is how the carbon has been coloured. Traditionally the colour comes from the resin that binds the carbon fibres together and the carbon itself retains its natural colour and would remain black/dark grey if the resin were removed. However, AP have developed a method that means it is the actual carbon fibres that are coloured. It’s what AP are calling CFT Carbon, or Chroma Forged Technology Carbon.
It’s been eight years since AP utilised forged carbon but they have not been idle in that time as five of those years were spent developing CFT Carbon. To summarise the patented process, the carbon fibres are cut into small pieces and have pigment applied to them. They are then layered into the carbon block mould and completed with resin as normal. This why the 43mm case of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date has a pattern of black areas and portions of shiny, luminous blue.
An important distinction is that during the layering process AP have full control over where to place the coloured carbon pieces. This is much more important than it sounds because it means that they have a high level of control over the pattern that features in the final product. Normally we describe the pattern of forged carbon as being totally random but now that’s not strictly the case. It’s just mostly random.
The forging process will still result in some deviation and changes due to the forces involved but as an analogy it’s much closer to baking a cake – you can pick your ingredients and arrange everything in the oven the way you want it, but the bake is what matters. On the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date the blue elements of the CFT Carbon are still highly irregular so I don’t think AP have fully explored what this concept may allow them to achieve.
Structurally it’s just as lightweight and durable as regular forged carbon. In fact, it’s technically more scratch resistant as there’s a lower proportion of resin in its construction compared to standard. Although if you want to talk about real scratch resistance you want to look to the ceramic hardware that the watch also features – the bezel, crown, pushers and caseback.
The dial and movement almost feel like secondary details on this watch. The movement is the calibre 4407, an automatic movement with 70-hour power reserve and equipped with a split-seconds, flyback chronograph, a 24-hour GMT hand, hours, minutes, seconds and an oversized date window. You can see it through the skeletonised dial, which remains highly legible thanks to electric blue scales.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT Large Date in forged carbon is price on request, which is to be expected considering the advanced materials used and the split-seconds chronograph movement. I think this is actually a pretty cool chronograph from AP, it almost feels like an AP-RM hybrid and I don’t hate that idea. I still want to see AP push this technology further to see if they can produce something truly jaw dropping and outrageous in future.
Price and Specs:
More details at Audemars Piguet.