Audemars Piguet keeps finding new places to put its ceramics, and the latest is a colour with real history behind it. The Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon now comes fully dressed in "Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50" ceramic, the reference 26730CD, and it is the first time the flying tourbillon has been rendered entirely in the shade. Monochrome covered the release on 3 August 2026.
A blue with a paper trail
The name is not marketing. "Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50" is the deep blue that Stern Frères developed for the first dials of the Royal Oak Jumbo, the 1972 reference 5402, achieved by adding black pigment No. 50 to the protective lacquer. Audemars Piguet turned that colour into a ceramic in 2025 and used it on a handful of Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore models, including the Perpetual Calendar 26674CD. What it had not done was carry the shade across the entire architecture of the Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon, and that is the news here: the case, bezel, crown and integrated bracelet are all the one coloured ceramic.
The case and dial
The dimensions are the familiar ones, a 41mm case 10.6mm thick, water resistant to 50 metres. The surfaces are still hand-finished with the alternating satin-brushing and polishing that give the Royal Oak its facets, which is not trivial on a material as hard as ceramic. A glareproofed sapphire crystal sits on top, and the caseback crystal is held in a titanium frame. The bracelet, also ceramic, closes on a titanium AP folding clasp.
The dial keeps the monochrome theme, a matching "Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50" Grande Tapisserie ground with 18k white gold applied markers and Royal Oak hands filled with lume. At 6 o'clock the rhodium-toned flying tourbillon sits in an opening, bridgeless from the dial side so it appears to float. There is nothing else to read: hours, minutes and the tourbillon, which is the point of a watch like this.
Calibre 2950
Power comes from the in-house calibre 2950, the automatic flying tourbillon movement AP first used in the Code 11.59 collection before moving it into the Royal Oak. It measures 31.5mm by 6.2mm, runs 270 components across 27 jewels, beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour and holds 65 hours. Through the sapphire caseback you get the traditional finishing, Côtes de Genève, circular graining and polished bevels, plus a rhodium-toned 22-carat pink gold oscillating weight. It is a self-winding tourbillon, so the wearer does not have to think about the reserve the way a hand-wound piece would demand.
Price and availability
The 26730CD joins the permanent collection rather than arriving as a limited edition. Audemars Piguet lists the price on request; Monochrome expects it to land around CHF 210,000, which is the number to hold loosely until the brand confirms it. More sits at audemarspiguet.com. Full ceramic Royal Oaks are not new, and neither is this blue, but combining the two under the flying tourbillon is the kind of move AP has spent the last few years making, taking a familiar case and letting the material carry the story.
