new gold Watchmaker Audemars Piguet has created a bold new style for its Royal Oak Automatic Flying Tourbillon Skeleton Sand Gold watch.

There's something mesmerizing about the desert, its towering, seemingly endless dunes catching the sun and glistening in the heat. Audemars Piguet uses this color in its new 41mm Royal Oak Self-winding Flying Tourbillon Skeleton watch, launching it in sand gold, an 18-karat gold alloy named after the sand dunes in the sun.

Sand gold is a combination of yellow gold, copper and palladium that oscillates between white and rose gold while being tarnish-resistant, making it a durable and timeless material.

The alluvial gold case and bracelet feature the watchmaker’s signature alternating satin-brushed and polished chamfers, while the large mirror-polished bevels of the octagonal bezel and the chamfered decoration on each link and stud of the tapered bracelet. Highlights the light and shadow effect. Such extraordinary material.

To match the case and bracelet, the watchmaker developed a galvanized sandy gold tone to decorate the inner bezel as well as the skeletonized bridges and main plate of the Caliber 2972 movement (visible on both sides of the watch). The openworked parts are decorated horizontally and vertically to highlight the depth of the movement, while brushed and polished angles enhance the light effect of the watch.

Sand-gold-toned bridges and mainplate contrast with the gray, while rhodium-toned barrels, gear trains and the flying tourbillon at 6 o’clock complement the white gold hour-markers and hands, all filled with luminous material.

To highlight the skeletonized structure of the movement, the “Audemars Piguet” logo is printed in black on the anti-reflective sapphire crystal at 12 o’clock. On the case back, a rhodium-toned 22-karat rose gold oscillating weight further enhances the two-tone aesthetic of the skeletonized movement.