Audemars Piguet Unveils an Unprecedented Polychrome Camouflage Gold Alloy

Earlier this year, alongside multiple new watches such as the RO Perpetual with John Mayer and the Sand Gold alloy applied to an RO Openworked Tourbillon, Audemars Piguet also presented an unexpected and entirely novel multi-coloured ceramic called chroma ceramic featuring a polarising but cool camouflage pattern. In the same vein, Audemars Piguet now applies this concept to a gold alloy, a first for the industry. Called chroma gold, this camouflage gold alloy is bold and unconventional, but what is fascinating is that we’re not looking at a coating: it’s solid camouflage gold. And in a way, it is genuinely cool – or at least highly creative.

In its more recent history, Audemars Piguet has shown great audacity in its use of innovative and unconventional materials. Already in 1972, AP was ahead of its time using stainless steel for its luxury sports watch – the Royal Oak Jumbo – when gold was the norm. It was mainly the Royal Oak Offshore and its bold, avant-garde design that opened the door to innovation in materials, appearing in titanium in 1998, forged carbon in 2004 and ceramic in 2008. The Royal Oak Concept of 2002 pushed things even further with a case combining titanium and Alacrite 602, a light and extremely resistant high-tech alloy. In 2023, Audemars Piguet introduced a precious form of Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG), used for the first time in the Royal Oak Jumbo 16202XT. Earlier this year, as mentioned above, we witnessed the arrival of the chroma concept, an unprecedented camouflage take on ceramic (a solid material, not a coating or separate glued parts of ceramic).

Using the same technique as chroma ceramic, Audemars Piguet now unveils something a bit less radical and more luxurious but identical in concept, with a camouflage gold alloy known as chroma gold. And like the ceramic, this material is solid gold. It’s not tinted, coated or the result of machining separate parts that are glued or bonded together… It’s a far more complex process that results in a homogenous material with different tones of gold on a single piece. Like it or not, the method behind it is fascinating.

So how is this camouflage gold or chroma gold material made? As you can see, it merges the three classic colours of gold – white, yellow and pink – into one single piece of gold. Like the polychrome ceramic presented at the beginning of the year, the new chroma gold has been obtained by using Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) technology, which significantly reduces the sintering time from several hours to just a few dozen minutes. As Audemars Piguet explains: “To create this multi-coloured camouflage gold motif, the different colours of gold are transformed separately: the gold is first melted before the droplets are atomised into powder. Each powder is then carefully placed in a circular graphite mould to create the desired pattern. The mould is then sintered by passing a powerful electric current through the graphite. This current creates a meteoric rise in temperature, which, combined with the mechanical pressure on both sides of the mould, allows extremely rapid sintering to take place. The resulting disc reveals the various shades of gold.”

This unprecedented technique results in a solid multi-coloured camouflage gold material. The compression of the gold powders during the sintering cycle makes each piece unique, as the pattern varies slightly from model to model. Audemars Piguet explains: “Despite these subtle variations, this technique ensures visual consistency between the different components. Each disc produced can be used to create a case, a bezel or bracelet links, enhancing the unique appearance of the whole.” All components can later be finished classically with satin finishing and polished chamfers, revealing the white, yellow and pink hues of this camouflage gold alloy.

Chroma gold isn’t commercialised by AP for now. However, AP has created this 34 mm Royal Oak with a camouflage motif as an example of what chroma gold looks like. As always, with such polarising and original concepts, it’ll be a love-or-hate affair. Objectively, this camouflage gold looks quite fascinating indeed! For more details, please visit www.audemarspiguet.com.