Ceramic Speculation

[SteelCity]

Hi folks. As has become a near nightly ritual, I’ve been casually browsing the AP website to scratch the itch waiting for my 15500 to arrive. I couldn’t help but notice that ceramic seems to be the hot new medium that AP is releasing a lot of their heavy hitters in, along with a few other options. Which got me to thinking- so far the ceramic offerings are/have been:

Diver 15707 (simple three hander)
ROO 44 Chronos (green,blue, and rose gold)
New Code 11:59 Chronos

and then the Royal Oaks which are either tourbillons, openworks, or PCs.

My question is, do you think AP will ever come around to selling Royal Oaks in ceramic configurations for the “mere mortals” like the standard three hander or chrono? If they held it as a rule to only do it for their grand complications or the like I would understand, but since they’ve done it with more standard movements in other lines I would think it’s almost inevitable. No?

Personally, I think a black ceramic 15500 with a gray dial or white ceramic with blue dial would be an absolute killer. Put a price point between the steel and gold models?

Thoughts/opinions?

[fsprow]

Originally Posted by SteelCity

Hi folks. As has become a near nightly ritual, I’ve been casually browsing the AP website to scratch the itch waiting for my 15500 to arrive. I couldn’t help but notice that ceramic seems to be the hot new medium that AP is releasing a lot of their heavy hitters in, along with a few other options. Which got me to thinking- so far the ceramic offerings are/have been:

Diver 15707 (simple three hander)
ROO 44 Chronos (green,blue, and rose gold)
New Code 11:59 Chronos

and then the Royal Oaks which are either tourbillons, openworks, or PCs.

My question is, do you think AP will ever come around to selling Royal Oaks in ceramic configurations for the “mere mortals” like the standard three hander or chrono? If they held it as a rule to only do it for their grand complications or the like I would understand, but since they’ve done it with more standard movements in other lines I would think it’s almost inevitable. No?

Personally, I think a black ceramic 15500 with a gray dial or white ceramic with blue dial would be an absolute killer. Put a price point between the steel and gold models?

Thoughts/opinions?

I hope the replacement for my much loved 15202 is in ceramic.

[AperolSpritz]

Personally I don't see a more "entry level" royal oak being manufactured in ceramic (applies to 15500 and 15202 or its replacement).

A ceramic RO takes 10x more production time (case & bracelet). My view is this will remain a material for more expensive products such as QP. For ex, they had to reduce ceramic QP production given the launch of the ceramic skeleton.

Just not enough capacity and a question of optimizing revenues.

My 2 cents based on different conversations.

[fsprow]

Originally Posted by AperolSpritz

Personally I don't see a more "entry level" royal oak being manufactured in ceramic (applies to 15500 and 15202 or its replacement).

A ceramic RO takes 10x more production time (case & bracelet). My view is this will remain a material for more expensive products such as QP. For ex, they had to reduce ceramic QP production given the launch of the ceramic skeleton.

Just not enough capacity and a question of optimizing revenues.

My 2 cents based on different conversations.

From a cost perspective, they could increase the MSRP of the 15202 to say US$70K and still be under the reseller market for the current model.

[VogelPhoenix]

Originally Posted by SteelCity

Personally, I think a black ceramic 15500 with a gray dial or white ceramic with blue dial would be an absolute killer. Put a price point between the steel and gold models?

I was just day-dreaming about that yesterday.

CE 15500 with a nice dial would cause total mayhem - feeding frenzy worse than 15202, IMO (and I would camp out in front of the boutique, begging for one).

[VogelPhoenix]

Originally Posted by AperolSpritz

A ceramic RO takes 10x more production time (case & bracelet). My view is this will remain a material for more expensive products such as QP. For ex, they had to reduce ceramic QP production given the launch of the ceramic skeleton.

CE RO on rubber strap then? They did the CE diver and ROO chronos, and the CE case Code chrono is cheaper than the gold ones.

CE openworked has a ~25k CHF premium to steel. Even a 45k CE RO would be a hit, I'm sure.

Would be a little odd though to combine it with the museum-piece movement in the 15202 though, although that would be worth entry for the 50th anniversary.

[fsprow]

Would be a little odd though to combine it with the museum-piece movement in the 15202 though, although that would be worth entry for the 50th anniversary.[/QUOTE]
....................
My "museum-piece" movement is always within 2 spd, allows a very thin case and has been with me in many sports (climbing, skiing, golf) with zero problems.

[VogelPhoenix]

Originally Posted by fsprow

....................
My "museum-piece" movement is always within 2 spd, allows a very thin case and has been with me in many sports (climbing, skiing, golf) with zero problems.

Clearly, that's a term of affection

[shkure]

A little bird told me that a ladies 34mm Ceramic RO is coming in the summer. Time and date only supposedly. I would be shocked if its not released alongside the 37 and 41.


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[SteelCity]

Originally Posted by shkure

A little bird told me that a ladies 34mm Ceramic RO is coming in the summer. Time and date only supposedly. I would be shocked if its not released alongside the 37 and 41.

Very interesting. After thinking about this a while I actually reached out to my SA earlier this afternoon and posed him the question. His response was “nothing that I’m allowed to share at this time.” While not a confirmation, I feel like he would just say no if there was no talk or plans of it whatsoever. Guess I’ll just have to look forward for the next batch of releases sometime this summer...

[ragsk]

I think it's a certainty that AP will release the 15500 in ceramic or the new Jumbo replacement. My bet is on the 15500.

[Reign]

Originally Posted by VogelPhoenix

CE RO on rubber strap then? They did the CE diver and ROO chronos, and the CE case Code chrono is cheaper than the gold ones.

CE openworked has a ~25k CHF premium to steel. Even a 45k CE RO would be a hit, I'm sure.

Would be a little odd though to combine it with the museum-piece movement in the 15202 though, although that would be worth entry for the 50th anniversary.

any idea how much the CE Openworked is these days?

[VogelPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Reign

any idea how much the CE Openworked is these days?

Well, list is 77700 CHF, of course. But it's quite interesting that there has been nothing on C24 for a while (in fact, I can't find any for sale online, although I may be looking in the wrong places). It would seem that AP is making very few of them and doing a reasonable job of keeping them out of the hands of flippers. My boutique claimed they might get 1-2 per year.

[ts3]

I'd love AP to make the 15202 in ceramic before it gets retired. The most iconic watch in their most advanced material. Simplicity at its best. But I don't think there will be a non-limited and regular-production RO two or three hander in ceramic.

[SteelCity]

And a follow up less than three months later…

https://www.audemarspiguet.com/com/e...1266CE.01.html

[Zavier]

Originally Posted by SteelCity

And a follow up less than three months later…

https://www.audemarspiguet.com/com/e...1266CE.01.html

Oh wow! Damn! Just wow!!

[Burlington]

Now that is stunning. But only 34mm !

[shkure]

Originally Posted by shkure

A little bird told me that a ladies 34mm Ceramic RO is coming in the summer. Time and date only supposedly. I would be shocked if its not released alongside the 37 and 41.


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The little bird was right :D


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