Multicoloured gemstones on an openworked tourbillon is the most difficult setting decision in this collection, and this reference is where Audemars Piguet made it. The dial and inner bezel are white gold set with brilliant-cut multicoloured stones, and the folding clasp is set the same way. A single-colour setting has one problem to solve, which is how the stones sit against the metal. A multicoloured one has to solve that and then decide the order, because the eye reads a sequence of colours as intentional whether or not it was, and a gradient that goes wrong is far more visible than a diamond that sits slightly proud. The case is white gold, 38.5 mm across and 11.4 mm thick, and the movement carries a flying tourbillon. It is no longer part of the current collection.
The case is 38.5 mm across and 11.4 mm thick in white gold, which is genuinely slim for a tourbillon and is what makes the reference something to wear rather than something to own. White gold is the neutral ground the design requires, since it takes no position against any of the colours set into it, where rose or yellow gold would have favoured the warm stones and fought the cool ones. The dial is openworked white gold set with brilliant-cut multicoloured gemstones. Openworking a dial that is also being set compounds the difficulty rather than doubling it, because each aperture cut for the mechanism removes metal a stone could have been seated in, so the setting has to be laid out around the openwork and the available positions are dictated by what the movement underneath has left. Adding a colour sequence on top of that constraint is the hard part. The inner bezel is set to match, carrying the colour to the edge of the dial and closing the composition. The hands are openworked white gold, skeletonised so they cross the movement without hiding it. The strap is hand-stitched blue alligator in a large square scale, coarser than dress-watch hide and correctly matched to the Royal Oak case, with a white gold folding clasp set with brilliant-cut multicoloured stones. A blue rubber strap with a constellation decoration is supplied as well. Supplying two straps of that kind is a deliberate signal rather than a courtesy. Alligator with a set clasp keeps the reference in the formal register its stones imply, while a textured rubber strap takes the identical watch somewhere considerably less careful, and offering both on a fully set tourbillon says something about how Audemars Piguet expects it to be worn. The clasp moves between the two, so switching is a strap change rather than a rebuild, which is the difference between a second strap that gets used and one that stays in the box. Blue is also the neutral that lets a multicoloured dial settle rather than compete.
The movement carries a flying tourbillon and a power reserve display, with hours and minutes. A flying tourbillon has no upper bridge across the rotating carriage and is supported from beneath, so the assembly appears to turn unsupported and remains fully visible from the front. That is why it is paired with an openworked dial here, and the two are really one decision rather than two: the dial is opened to show the tourbillon and the tourbillon is built flying so that there is something uninterrupted to show. The power reserve display is the second complication and the useful one, reporting how much running time is left before the watch stops. On a tourbillon that is worth more than it would be elsewhere, since a movement of this kind that runs down has to be restarted and reset rather than simply picked up and shaken into motion. The indicator is read against the openworked mechanism rather than from a dedicated panel, so it takes nothing away from the setting or from the view. There is no date, no chronograph and no running seconds. On a dial that is both openworked and set, that reduction is not restraint but necessity, since every additional display would cost both mechanism visibility and setting area at once. The result is a watch with essentially nothing to operate, which is the correct outcome here and entirely wrong for a buyer who wants a watch to do something.
Within the Royal Oak Concept collection this sits among the gem-set flying tourbillons at 38.5 mm, a group made in very small numbers and separate in intent from the large technical Concept references. Those are 44 mm titanium watches carrying repeaters, chronographs and multiple complications, and they are read as engineering. This group takes the collection name into a smaller case and spends everything on setting instead. Its direct siblings are set with brilliant-cut diamonds and with brilliant-cut blue sapphires respectively, and the 26228 references alongside use baguette-cut stones. The multicoloured version is the outlier among them and the one that will divide opinion most sharply, since a diamond or sapphire setting can be described as classical and this one cannot.
This reference is for a collector who wants a tourbillon and wants the setting to be the reason for owning it rather than an addition to it. That is an unusual position at this level, where the mechanism is normally treated as the justification and the stones as decoration. Here the balance is reversed and the reference is honest about it. The slimness matters practically, since 11.4 mm means the watch fits under a cuff, which is not true of most tourbillons. Now that the reference has left the catalogue the production is closed, and multicoloured settings are produced in the smallest quantities of anything in the collection precisely because they are the hardest to execute consistently. The buyer is someone who wants a watch that no one else will be wearing and is untroubled by the fact that it will not be to everyone's taste.
