Royal Oak Tourbillon Squelette

The Royal Oak has been in continuous production since 1972 and the skeleton tourbillon executions are the small end of it. Openworking a calibre is not a matter of removing metal; every bridge has to be recalculated so the movement stays rigid after two thirds of its material is gone.

Here the bridges are engraved by hand after skeletonisation, then bevelled on both edges. The result is that the octagonal bezel with its eight hexagonal screws frames a dial you can see through to the caseback.

The tourbillon sits at six, a date register at three, and a small seconds ring at nine, all floating on a chapter ring with applied Roman numerals. It is a technically dense dial that still reads at a glance.

Yellow gold on the integrated bracelet is the configuration collectors have rediscovered in the last few years, after two decades of white metal dominance. Tapering and finishing on the bracelet is the reason these take so long to build.

Genta drew the case in a single night. Half a century later, everything else about the watch has changed except that outline.