If you're torn between white, yellow and rose gold when wearing your watch, Audemars Piguet now offers another option: Polychrome Gold, a camouflage pattern mixture made up of three precious metals. The new material was first used to create the Royal Oak 34 mm prototype and was unveiled at the "New Material" exhibition in Milan.
Following the launch of a new watch made of multi-coloured ceramic at the beginning of the year, Audemars Piguet's R&D team has now developed and patented a new mixture of precious metals, known as Jackpot. Like multi-coloured ceramics, coloured gold is produced using the Spark Plasma Sintering process, which reduces the sintering time from hours to minutes.
To create a camouflage version of the pattern, different precious metals need to be melted separately and the droplets atomized into powder. The different powders are then placed into a circular graphite mold to create the desired pattern. The die is then heated while mechanical pressure is applied on both sides, resulting in rapid sintering. In this way, a disc composed of a variety of precious metals with different gold hues was produced.
Subsequently, the individual parts are pre-polished and pre-sanded. Final hand-finishing for an alternating brushed and polished finish. Multi-colored gold discs can be used to make cases, bezels, dials, and even bracelet links. (Photo/text: Xu Chaoyang, the home of watches)