The brilliant watchmakers from Audemars Piguet have done it again! They’ve recently unveiled one of the most extraordinary watches we’ve seen lately, the Haute Joaillerie Sapphire Orbe, an incredible timepiece that pushes luxury watchmaking and gem setting to new heights. Named after the river that crosses Le Brassus, the small Swiss village which is the home of Audemars Piguet, this timepiece looks like a glittering river of diamonds and sapphires, combining graded colors of blue and orange to represent the night merging into the day. It’s a multifaceted design that offers a wonderful play of color and light, depending on the perspective from which you look at the watch.
Just the gem-setting part required more than 1,050 hours of fine craftsmanship. At the heart of the Sapphire Orbe lies a 2 cm dark blue, sapphire-set globe, that opens up to reveal a superb 18-carat white gold dial which is also paved with graded orange sapphires. The domed center houses a tiny quartz caliber which makes this watch tick.
Meanwhile, the delicate, petal-shaped rings that revolve around this hidden dial are snow-set with tiny diamonds and graded sapphires in 6 shades of blue and orange and 20 different diameters, ranging from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm in size. In total, this haute joaillerie marvel has been studded with more than 12,000 precious stones, each of them carefully selected, individually cut and set by hand.
That’s why it’s no surprise that Audemars Piguet’s Haute Joaillerie Sapphire Orbe is priced at a cool $904,000. The watch comes in 18K white gold and it can be worn as an eye catching bracelet, with the dial cover on, and as an exquisite watch when it’s inverted. It’s one of those secret timepieces that everyone will love.
