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Kit O. Payumo

Modesty Blaze

Audemars Piguet creates a star-studded carapace

Last year the Manufacture from Brassus gave us Diamond Punk, a paved, star-studded cuff watch with the streak of a punk-rock goddess. This year, Audemars Piguet awes with Diamond Fury, Punk’s mighty warrior sister that was designed to stalk the Haute Joaillerie landscape like a shimmering force of diamond-studded nature.

Say what you will about Audemars Piguet, but for the past 2 years the Manufacture has gone out of its way to prove that even bedrock can take risks. And if classic vintage chic was the buzzword at this year’s SIHH, Audemars Piguet has proven that they can go against the grain by blinging-out with the best of them. In fact, they went off the well-beaten path mightily established by Breguet’s diamond-encrusted sensibilities and went even further into the woods with last year’s Diamond Punk and now with this year’s Diamond Fury, Audemars Piguet has shown that with just a little bit more daring and a little bit more attitude that risk can easily transmute into risqué.

No, not a coiled armadillo but furiously armor plated none the less.

Not to be confused with Bulgari’s now signature Serpenti, Diamond Fury looks like the diamond-encrusted carapace of some prehistoric horned lizard. Indeed, Diamond Fury is a stunningly blazing piece of Haute Joaillerie armored to the hilt with serpentine scales covered in thousands of hand-placed diamonds. Simply gob-smackingly mesmerizing to look at, Diamond Fury certainly has no problem living up to its self-proclaimed “force of nature” status.

Even “under armor”, Audemars Piguet master artisans took extra time to work on the intricate lattice work of the interior of the cuff as much as the scaly exterior. Indeed, this naturally tough form is precision engineered to slink around a woman’s wrist, which when worn sensually serves to enhance its carapace-like outer shell.

“Diamond Fury is not about the watch, it’s about turning heads.”

And in one of the rare times at Calibre, we’re glad to say Diamond Fury is not about the watch. As it is, Diamond Fury already took over 1,500 hours to create and is available in two versions. It is armored with a shield of 4,635 brilliant-cut diamonds, plus another 206 on the dial, on the full diamond version which amasses a total of 25.60 carats, heavy enough to feel a little burn when wearing it. A second version in a combination of diamond and onyx tempers the bling a little bit but is no less a man-eater than the first.

More bangle than timepiece, Diamond Fury’s “mysterious” time element is only revealed when a secret panel is subtly unclipped to reveal the timepiece beneath. Fortunately, the outdated and somewhat awkward slide-over mechanism used on Diamond Punk has been replaced by a hidden “suicide hinge” for Diamond Fury. One of the spikes unhinges with a push to open upwards revealing the pave-encrusted watch dial beneath.

The 40 mm-wide Diamond Fury by the way is powered “only” by the slim Calibre 2601 quartz movement, which in this case is entirely forgivable because…like we said, Diamond Fury is not about the watch, it’s about turning heads. Something Diamond Fury is certainly more than capable of. Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar in white gold yet another example of how A. Lange & Söhne is at the pinnacle of fine watch making.

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