This is the 26229, the reference in the gem-set Royal Oak Concept group that carries a different bracelet code and is otherwise built on the same architecture as the tourbillons beside it. The openworked white gold dial and inner bezel are set with brilliant-cut diamonds, the hands are openworked white gold, and the movement carries a flying tourbillon. What separates it from the 26227 references is not the dial treatment but the way the watch is finished and fastened, which is the axis this part of the collection tends to be developed along once the setting and the mechanism have been settled. The case is white gold, 38.5 mm across and 11.6 mm thick. It is no longer part of the current collection.
The case measures 38.5 mm across and 11.6 mm thick in white gold, slim for a tourbillon and the reason the reference is worn rather than stored. White gold is the necessary metal for a diamond setting, since the two share a colour temperature and the stones read as an extension of the case rather than as an addition to it, so the front of the watch is one continuous bright surface broken only where the mechanism shows through. The dial is openworked white gold set with brilliant-cut diamonds. Setting a dial that is also openworked is a compounding difficulty rather than two problems solved in sequence, because every aperture cut for the movement takes away metal in which a stone could have been seated, and the setting therefore has to follow the openwork rather than being designed independently and applied afterwards. The pattern of stones is dictated by what the mechanism underneath has left available, which is why no two gem-set openworked references distribute their stones the same way. The inner bezel is set to match and carries the brightness out to the edge of the dial. The hands are openworked white gold, skeletonised so they cross the movement rather than hiding it, and on a bright dial that skeletonising is what keeps them findable. The strap is hand-stitched light blue alligator in a large square scale, coarser than dress-watch hide and matched to the Royal Oak case, with a white gold folding clasp set with brilliant-cut diamonds. A light blue rubber strap with a constellation decoration is supplied as well. The two straps are not simply a choice of colour, since alligator and rubber place a set watch in genuinely different situations. Alligator with a diamond-set clasp keeps the reference formal and consistent with what the dial implies. The textured rubber strap takes the identical watch somewhere far less careful, and supplying one at all on a fully set tourbillon says something about how Audemars Piguet expects it to be used. Because the clasp travels between both, changing over is a strap swap rather than a rebuild.
The movement carries a flying tourbillon and a power reserve display, with hours and minutes. A flying tourbillon has no bridge across the top of the rotating carriage and is supported only from beneath, so the assembly appears to turn unsupported and remains visible from the dial side, which is why it is always paired with an openworked dial in this collection. The openwork exists to show the tourbillon and the tourbillon is built flying so that what is shown is uninterrupted. The power reserve display is the practical complication, reporting how much running time remains before the watch stops, and it matters more on a tourbillon than on an ordinary watch because a movement of this kind that runs down must be restarted and reset rather than simply picked up. The indicator reads against the mechanism itself rather than from a dedicated panel. There is no date, no chronograph and no seconds display, and on a dial that is both openworked and set that reduction is structural rather than a stylistic preference.
Within the Royal Oak Concept collection this belongs to the gem-set flying tourbillons at 38.5 mm, a group produced in very small numbers and distinct in intent from the large technical Concept references, which are 44 mm titanium watches carrying repeaters and chronographs and are bought as engineering. The gem-set group divides between brilliant-cut and baguette-cut settings, the 26227 references using the former and the 26228 references the latter, with the baguette versions also carrying their setting out onto the outer bezel. This reference sits on the brilliant-cut side, with the light blue strap that recurs through the group as the collection's preferred pairing for a white gold set watch. Collectors following this part of the catalogue tend to catalogue by stone and cut first and by reference number second, because the reference numbers separate configurations that look far more alike than the stones do.
This reference suits a collector who wants a set tourbillon in the classical combination and does not need the watch to announce a preference beyond that. Diamonds on white gold will always read as luxury and the light blue strap is the only element that places the watch in a particular moment rather than in the general category. The slimness is the practical case for the whole group, since at 11.6 mm this is a tourbillon that fits under a cuff, which most are not, and that is what turns a watch of this complexity into one that is actually used. Now that the reference has left the catalogue the production is closed, and gem-set tourbillons at this size are made in the smallest quantities Audemars Piguet produces. The buyer is someone who wants the mechanism and the setting held in equal regard rather than one serving the other.
