The shiny, silver-toned mirror, framed with the shimmering sparkle of a frosted gold case and bracelet, replaces the trademark ‘Tapisserie’ Royal Oak dial.

Described by its designer as “rebellious” in character, this is an attention-grabbing piece, made in the image of a woman of today: spontaneous, true to life and totally unapologetic.

Carolina Bucci’s original 2016 frosted gold design celebrated 40 years of Royal Oak for women. With this limited edition of 300 pieces, her design evolves in new directions. For the first time, the ‘diamond dust’ finish appears in yellow gold – the designer’s favourite version of this precious metal.

There’s novelty in the packaging as well, with a mirrored box bearing a Frosted Gold AP insignia. This box is also designed by Carolina Bucci, who believes in pulling out luxury watch packaging from the back of the closet to put it on display.

Above all, being almost without precedent in the annals of the manufacture, this mirrored dial is stunning. Carolina Bucci explains her inspiration with a certain, yet unexpected, creative logic: “With the first frosted gold design, I took the perfection of the Royal Oak case and bracelet and ‘roughed them up’ a little, juxtaposing the perfectly imperfect Florentine finish with Swiss watchmaking precision. Now I’m doing the opposite, taking the textured surface of the ‘Tapisserie’ dial and flattening it out into a perfectly smooth mirror. The motive for both is to create something interesting and unpredictable. It’s a fresh take on an icon made in the image of a contemporary woman.”