Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Joaillerie: The Bracelet as High Jewellery

Audemars Piguet turns the most recognisable bracelet in modern watchmaking into high jewellery. Royal Oak Joaillerie opens with two Haute Joaillerie lines, Dream of Joux and Risoud Eclipse, and a Frosted Gold series, each one drawn from the Vallée de Joux.

Presented in Le Brassus on 2 October 2026, the Royal Oak Joaillerie collection takes the tapering links, the studs and the alternating finishes of the 1972 Royal Oak and lets them stand as jewels in their own right. Necklaces, chokers, cuffs and earrings, developed by Audemars Piguet and co-designed by Nathalie Barzilay, all close with the same octagonal Royal Oak clasp, a discreet echo of the famous bezel.

What to Know First: Audemars Piguet

• Founded in 1875 in Le Brassus, in the Vallée de Joux, by Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet.
• The oldest fine watchmaking manufacturer still in the hands of its founding families.
• Creator of the Royal Oak in 1972, designed by Gérald Genta, and of a version for women in 1976.
• An in-house jewellery workshop since the 1980s and a Haute Joaillerie watch collection since 2013.
• Led by Chief Executive Officer Ilaria Resta.

A Bracelet Designed to Catch the Light

When Gérald Genta imagined the Royal Oak, he gave a steel sports watch the sensibility of a jewel. Its octagonal bezel secured with hexagonal screws, its integrated bracelet and its hand-finished surfaces marked a new era in 1972. The alternation of satin brushing and polished chamfers raised steel to the status of gold and produced a play of light reminiscent of the facets of a diamond. Each tapering link and stud of the bracelet was decorated and assembled by hand.

The design language travelled well. In 1976, Jacqueline Dimier, the Manufacture’s first in-house designer, refined the proportions of the Royal Oak for women. In the 1990s, Emmanuel Gueit introduced the muscular Royal Oak Offshore together with a line of Royal Oak jewellery. Royal Oak Joaillerie continues that path, treating the bracelet as an object in its own right, versatile and expressive, made for the stories and moments of a new generation. Readers who follow the watch side of the family will find its sporting register in the Royal Oak Chronograph ‘Serena Williams’.

Dream of Joux: The Valley in Colour

Dream of Joux reinterprets the landscapes around Le Brassus through gem-setting. Frozen lakes, clear night skies and floral motifs appear on a series of one-of-a-kind cuffs in 18-carat white, yellow and pink gold. The Sunburst cuff radiates from an orange spessartite cabochon through yellow, orange and pink sapphires and spessartites. The Blue Moon gathers deep blue sapphires with Swiss blue and London blue topazes on white gold. The Tree of Life, in pink gold, grows from 203 cognac-coloured sapphires and graded tsavorites. Frozen Lake, Blueberries and Edelweiss complete the series.

The centrepiece is a tie necklace in anodised blue titanium and 18-carat white gold that evokes a wintry wonderland. Its links and studs are snow-set with 1,670 blue sapphires of varying diameters, placed side by side to cover them entirely with a frozen shimmer. They meet a cascade of 42 pear-shaped diamonds of 1.5 carats each, for approximately 63 carats, joined by pear-shaped diamonds of 5 and 3 carats. Matching drop earrings carry eight further pear-shaped diamonds.

Risoud Eclipse: Emeralds Under a Shadowed Sky

Risoud Eclipse looks to the sky above the Risoud Forest and to the valley’s pivotal role in celestial observation. The necklace and its matching cuff are built from black PVD titanium links and studs in a setting of 18-carat white gold. At their centre sit sugarloaf emeralds, five on the necklace for approximately 16.5 carats and three on the cuff for approximately 12 carats, each encircled by brilliant-cut diamonds like the halo of an eclipse.

The conical facets of the emeralds were ground and polished to welcome light from every angle and reveal their vivid green. Around them, the Manufacture’s signature alternation of satin brushing and polished chamfers on the dark titanium amplifies their lustre.

Frosted Gold: Diamond Dust on the Links

The third chapter speaks the most direct Royal Oak language: chokers and cuffs in 18-carat pink, white and yellow gold, entirely dressed in Frosted Gold. Based on an ancient Florentine technique, the finish was developed with jewellery designer Carolina Bucci in 2016 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Royal Oak for women, and has since become one of the signatures of Audemars Piguet. The precious metal is gently hammered with a diamond-tipped tool, and the resulting diamond dust effect is heightened by mirror-polished studs and polished chamfers. Captured in three shades of gold, it evokes the ever-changing luminosity of the Vallée de Joux.

A Jewellery Heritage at the Bench

Jewellery has accompanied Audemars Piguet since the 19th century. The company worked with Tiffany, Cartier, Oscar Heyman and Bvlgari on pendant, brooch and ring watches, and in 1929 sold the Tutti Frutti watch, powered by Calibre 5/7SB, the smallest movement ever produced by the Manufacture, with an exterior of diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires created by the Parisian jeweller Egouvillon Lafon. In the 1980s, the growing appetite for watches with welded bracelets led the brand to open its own jewellery workshop. A one-of-a-kind Baroque cuff watch in pink gold marked its 125th anniversary in 2000, and the Haute Joaillerie watch collection followed in 2013, with the Diamond Trilogy from 2015 to 2017 and the Sapphire Orbe in 2019.

“A gateway to the past and the future, the Royal Oak Joaillerie collection embodies Audemars Piguet’s free spirit,” says Ilaria Resta, Chief Executive Officer. “Jewellery has always played an important role in the company’s history. Drawing on our long-standing expertise, we continue to explore this creative realm alongside our core watchmaking activity to fuel our imagination, revisit our codes and enhance our approach to creation and expression.”

For a wider view of how the Manufacture reads its own heritage, the AP Talks on vintage watch aesthetics offer a fitting companion. The complete collection is presented on the Royal Oak Joaillerie collection page of Audemars Piguet.