Audemars Piguet's new Supersonnerie lets you see the chime before you hear it

Audemars Piguet is closing 2026 with three additions to its Code 11.59 line, all built around a single idea: craft a buyer can see and, in one case, hear. The headline piece is a 41mm Minute Repeater Supersonnerie in 18-carat white gold, a chiming complication.

What makes the repeater unusual is not the chime alone but the view of it. Its smoked sapphire dial gives a subtle look at the mechanics beneath, so a wearer can study the movement before the sound reaches an ear. Silver-toned details and white gold baton hands keep it restrained.

The repeater's case measures 13.6mm thick and carries 20 meters of water resistance, while the 38mm references are 9.6mm thick with double-curved sapphire crystals and 30 meters of water resistance. A grey alligator strap finishes the piece. This is the maison whose watches start around $17,000 and can pass $100,000 at the top, and the repeater belongs at that upper end.

How the Supersonnerie repeater works

Inside runs the manually wound Calibre 2953, a movement of 362 components with a 72-hour power reserve. The Supersonnerie construction at its heart first appeared in the Royal Oak Concept RD#1 in 2016, after eight years of work by watchmakers, musicians and researchers from EPFL.

That construction is the piece's real claim. The patented gongs are mounted on a dedicated soundboard, while an innovative caseback forms a resonance chamber designed to enhance the watch's acoustic performance. The sound is not bolted onto the complication; it is the complication.

The repeater also reverses the usual logic. Most buyers choose these pieces to hear something invisible; here the dial invites the wearer to watch the thing before it speaks. A sound-first complication becomes visual first, then audible.

Two 38mm stone-dial models

Audemars Piguet pairs the repeater with two 38mm Code 11.59 Selfwinding Stone Dial references that take the craft in a quieter, visual direction. The material is natural stone, and each reference gives it a different character: one warm, the other almost black and uninterrupted.

The warm version sets an 18-carat yellow gold case against a gold obsidian dial. The stone's natural mineral inclusions come into focus through a sunburst finish that radiates across the dark surface. Yellow gold hands and markers, a shimmering brown inner bezel and a black alligator strap carry the palette.

Its counterpart pairs an 18-carat pink gold case with a mirror-polished black onyx dial. The deep surface is punctuated by baguette-cut diamond hour markers totaling approximately 0.37 carats, beside pink gold hands and a matching black alligator strap.

Both 38mm references run on the self-winding Calibre 5909, which has 174 components and a 60-hour power reserve.

Where the maison stands

Audemars Piguet is a name we rank at the summit of haute horlogerie, alongside Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin, with A. Lange & Söhne now in that conversation. Our guide to the best luxury watch brands places Rolex first, with Audemars Piguet just behind.

We measure that field on heritage, in-house movement-making, value retention and design language. A maison can buy a name; it cannot buy a gong, a soundboard and the eight years of development that tuned them, and the Supersonnerie is the proof.

Across the three references the maison keeps manual and automatic winding side by side. The Supersonnerie is wound by hand; the stone dials wind themselves. Both approaches, in the maison's framing, balance technical sophistication with distinctive materials and finishing.

Details are available through the maison's official website and its physical boutiques. Audemars Piguet has published no pricing or edition sizes for the three references, which is the one thing a buyer cannot yet pin down. Our coverage of style will follow any figures.