AP just took watch tech to a whole new level.
For as much love as perpetual calendars get, there’s always been the painstaking process when it’s time to set one. Collectors will never admit it out loud, but most have had at least one afternoon ruined by accidentally skipping past February or nudging the moonphase the wrong way. So the idea that Audemars Piguet just debuted a device that basically takes the stress out of that routine feels oddly overdue. Two years into its partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation, AP is unveiling an intelligent watch box, debuting at Dubai Watch Week, that automatically sets and winds its 41 mm Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar. It’s a mix of robotics, computer vision, and AI, wrapped in a watch case that still feels very AP, marking one of those small but meaningful shifts in how the brand thinks about making complicated watches easier to live with.
AP already took a big step in this future-forward direction earlier this year with its Calibres 7138 and 7136, which finally allowed every correction through a single crown. The new setting box builds directly on that breakthrough. You drop the watch inside, close the lid, and the machine takes over, reading the dial, identifying which indicators are out of sync, and adjusting everything in around five minutes. Inside the device, there’s a system at work. A mechanical module handles the movements, replicating how a watchmaker would control the crown. A module keeps all the components talking to one another, while a small camera captures the dial layout and hand positions. That data is fed into a machine-learning model trained on a variety of Royal Oak QP configurations, letting the device adapt to each watch rather than forcing everything into a fixed routine.
The collaboration behind the box is its own story. AP’s partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation, and specifically Dubai Future Labs, has become a melting pot where traditional watchmaking meets advanced robotics and software. The finished product feels like something designed to make owning a perpetual calendar a little less intimidating and a lot more enjoyable.
Source: Audemars Piguet
