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Monday, 25 May 2015

Luxury watch Michael Schumacher helped design goes on sale

Around £148,000 Audemars Piguet Watch
The Formula 1 racing champion Michael Schumacher continues to slowly recuperate at his home in Switzerland – but reports seem to indicate that the motorsports world legend will never fully recover from his tragic 2013 skiing accident that almost took his life. As Schumacher’s family cares for the famed auto racer, a surprising element of his recent history debuted few days ago by luxury Swiss watch maker Audemars Piguet.

Michael Schumacher has been an ambassador of Audemars Piguet for several years, and in 2012, the brand released their first limited edition Royal Oak Offshore Michael Schumacher edition timepiece collection. Today, we see a new limited edition version of the Royal Oak in honor of Mr. Schumacher, but the circumstances are a bit different. Rather than a dressed up version of a more traditional Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph sports watch, the limited edition Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Laptimer timepiece includes a brand new type of functionality (in a mechanical wrist watch) specifically requested by Michael Schumacher himself.

The design of the watch, which has the split-second timer the former F1 driver wanted, was finalised before Schumacher's ski crash in December 2013.

Swiss manufacturer Audemars Piguet wanted to shelve the product indefinitely, but at the request of the German star's family it has been unveiled.

Their CEO François Bennahmias said he is "filled with sadness" remembering the day he learnt of Schumacher's ski crash in the French Alps.

The company showed the watch to the seven-time F1 world champion in October 2013 - just two months before the 46-year-old fell into a coma.


Schumacher's longtime manager Sabine Kehm said the F1 legend's family insisted the watch, which is selling for around £148,000, was launched.

She said: "It would have been a shame to stop things.

"That is why the family is absolutely behind launching the watch." 

The timepiece, named the Royal Oak Concept Laptimer Michael Schumacher, took more than three years to develop.

As he unveiled the timepiece, Mr Bennahmias talked of the moment the most successful F1 driver ever challenged him to make the watch.

Racing chronographs are among the most popular types of sports watches around. Chronographs are timepieces with built-in stop watches designed to measure intervals of elapsed time. Traditionally, these have been used by drivers to time their own laps or those of observed cars. Actually, being able to track time has utility far beyond the race track, which is why the chronograph is the second most popular mechanical complication next to a mere indication of the time (well, not counting a date indicator, that is).

So what is unique about the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Laptimer produced at the behest of Michael Schumacher? In 2010 (according to Audemars Piguet), Schumacher asked them to create a mechanical watch with a chronograph that could independently time two events at the same time. This functionality sort of existed in a complication called the rattrapante or “split seconds chronograph.” The weakness of this mechanism is that a second time can only be measured if the first time is running, and for a maximum of 60 seconds. The new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Laptimer takes the traditional split second chronograph one step further by allowing the user to start and top either of the two chronograph hands independently. This is a watch industry first, and is a complication Audemars Piguet has been working on since 2010.



Now that Audemars Piguet has achieved this mechanical feat, the sad truth is that Michael Schumacher will not likely ever have the opportunity to use the timepiece in the manner which he dreamed – at the track, measuring the time of two competing drivers at the same time. As an honor to Schumacher, Audemars Piguet has placed his signature logo on the left side of the watch – which itself is a minor design evolution on the existing Royal Oak Concept family.



At 44mm wide with dual titanium guards on either side of the case, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Laptimer is produced mainly from the brand’s in-house made “forged carbon” material. Around the dial is a titanium bezel, and the overall dark tones of the watch lend it a particularly masculine and aggressive stance. A hint of gold exists on the side of the case, as Audemars Piguet uses black ceramic and 18k pink gold for the chronograph pushers and crown. In a sense, the watch is also somber – perhaps a subtle nod Mr. Schumacher’s current state of being.


Inside the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Laptimer is the in-house made caliber 2923 manually wound double central seconds chronograph movement comprised of 413 parts. 

Operating at a modern 4Hz, the movement is able to measure time down to 1/8 of a second. 

The beautifully hand-finished yet modern movement is visible through the watch’s exhibition caseback window.

Photo & Article credit: Forbes

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