Why is Everyone Going Crazy Over the Audemars Piguet RD#5?

To outsiders, the frenzy surrounding Audemars Piguet’s latest release may seem puzzling. For collectors, however, the Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-Thin Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5, launched to mark the brand’s 150th anniversary, is nothing short of a revolution.

In short, Audemars Piguet has reimagined the chronograph, making it as easy to operate as your smartphone’s stopwatch. If we can start and stop timers with a gentle tap on a screen, why shouldn’t a wristwatch chronograph feel just as intuitive?

The Chronograph Reimagined

The RD#5 is the fifth and final chapter in Audemars Piguet’s experimental “RD” series, which has consistently pushed the boundaries of mechanical watchmaking. The series began in 2015 with the RD#1, an acoustic breakthrough that enhanced the Supersonnerie’s chimes. In 2018, the RD#2 flattened a perpetual calendar into a single layer, radically reducing thickness. Four years later, the RD#3 became the first ultra-thin Royal Oak Jumbo to feature a flying tourbillon. Then in 2023, the RD#4 showcased an extraordinary movement with forty functions. Now, the RD#5 takes on the chronograph—a complication that has remained essentially unchanged for nearly two centuries.

At first glance, what stands out is the absence of the Royal Oak chronograph’s traditional protruding pushers. Besides its crown, the octagonal case remains unbroken, retaining the purity of Gérald Genta’s iconic design. In place of bulky buttons are shallow, smartphone-inspired actuators that require almost no force to engage.

Since its invention in the early nineteenth century and throughout its advancements—vertical clutch, flyback, split seconds—the chronograph’s core mechanics have barely evolved. The hammer-and-heart cam system still dominates, and activating it requires around 1.5 kilograms of force. Giulio Papi, Audemars Piguet’s Technical Director and one of modern horology’s most important innovators, posed a simple question: why should starting a chronograph demand so much physical effort, especially when the watch is already filled with stored energy?

The answer came in the form of a patented rack-and-pinion system that replaces brute force with finesse. Instead of requiring a hefty push to cock the reset hammer that leans against the heart-shaped cam, the rack and pinion gently engage and disengage by moving towards or away from each other, drawing on energy from the chronograph that would have otherwise gone to waste.

This reduces the energy required by 80 percent, shortens the pusher travel to a mere 0.3 millimeters, and resets the mechanism within 0.15 seconds.

Even more impressively, the chronograph minute counter no longer sweeps forward, but is jumped instantaneously, by a return spring that also draws energy from the running chronograph. All these advancements culminate in a unique chronograph, which has been reinvented for the first time in two centuries.

Calibre 8100

At the heart of this reimagining lies the all-new Calibre 8100, a 4mm-thin movement that has combined a flyback chronograph and a high-amplitude flying tourbillon (first seen in the RD#3) for the first time. Unlike traditional Royal Oak chronographs, which favor symmetrical counters at the cardinal points, the RD#5 nudges its subdials slightly higher, giving the lightweight titanium-caged tourbillon pride of place at six o’clock.

The crown, too, has been rethought. Rather than pulling it out to switch between winding and setting, a discreet pusher embedded in the crown toggles between modes. A red indicator signals when the watch is ready to be set, underscoring the user-friendly philosophy that guided the RD#5’s creation. A peripheral rotor ensures that the watch remains self-winding while keeping the movement’s architecture fully visible through the caseback.

Behind this groundbreaking design is Giulio Papi, whose career has shaped the modern watchmaking landscape. In the 1990s, together with Dominique Renaud, he co-founded Renaud et Papi, a specialist workshop that created high complications for brands such as IWC, Richard Mille, A. Lange & Söhne, Grönefeld and Greubel Forsey.

In the 1990s and 2000s, as international interest in highly complicated watches soared, brands had only a handful of brilliant minds to turn to, such as Jean-François Mojon (Chronode), and Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini (La Fabrique du Temps). But if your goal was a high-performance, high-drama minute repeater, tourbillon or chronograph, the conversation always started with Renaud et Papi.

When Audemars Piguet acquired the firm in 2018, Papi returned to Le Brassus, where he now leads technical development. The RD#5 is perhaps the clearest expression yet of his philosophy: innovation should not only serve tradition, but also the wearer.

Signature Design Codes

For all its mechanical daring, the RD#5 remains unmistakably a Royal Oak. Its “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50” Petite Tapisserie dial retains the model’s classic texture, while snailed counters and white-gold bathtub hands maintain continuity with the past. The chronograph hands, however, are rendered in titanium, chosen for its stability and lightness.

The case and integrated bracelet combine titanium with Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG), an alloy rapidly cooled to attain ultra toughness, devoid of brittle crystalline structures. The bezel blends palladium with BMG, giving it both resilience and a subtle, precious sheen. Remarkably, despite housing a reinvented chronograph and a flying tourbillon, the case measures just 8.1 millimeters thick—a feat that preserves the Royal Oak Jumbo’s extra-thin legacy.

Limited to 150 pieces and priced at CHF 260,000, the RD#5 is not merely a commemorative anniversary model. It is a statement of intent, one that hints at the future direction of Audemars Piguet.

Dare I say, this may be the masterstroke of Audemars Piguet’s relatively new CEO, Ilaria Resta. While millions are obsessed with owning a Royal Oak, Resta pushed her team to rethink what it means to enjoy one: its feel, its silhouette, its usability. Arriving in August 2023 from outside the watch world, she had big shoes to fill. After all, her predecessor, François-Henry Bennahmias, had quadrupled Audemars Piguet’s revenue over two decades. (Incidentally, Bennahmias announced last month that he’s launching a new luxury venture called The Honourable Merchants Group.) With the remarkable accomplishment that is the RD#5, Resta has swiftly quieted rumors of her impending departure.