A patented development with great potential.

Trams with piles of gold on their roofs appeared on the streets of Milan in May. That's how Audemars Piguet announced the opening of the manufacture's AP House Milan in the former Garage Traversi building, simultaneously advertising their Shaping Materials exhibition which launched on June 3.

The five-room exhibition space tells the story of the brand's key materials, including steel, gold, platinum, and ceramic, and it also showcases new watches and developments.

In a structure lined with shiny metallic walls in the former seminary courtyard on Piazza del Quadrilatero (now the location of the Portrait Milano Hotel), visitors can look forward to a reissue of models from the 1960s [RE]Master02 in the alloy Sand Gold, the Royal Oak Mini with a Frosted Gold finish, and AP's new camouflage gold.

The new material called Chroma Gold has yet to grace a watch in the current commercial collection — this development is still in the patented prototype stage. Nevertheless, its characteristics are already distinct.

A camouflage pattern is merged from a number of gold alloys: white, yellow, and rose gold. It only takes 40 minutes to create a disk thanks to Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) technology. First the different alloy tones of gold are melted down, then they're atomized into powders.

After that, the powders are blended in a graphite mold, which is sintered by passing a powerful electric current through it. This rapid heating is combined with the application of mechanical pressure, and voilà — an array of powders is fused into a single material. Each resulting disk exhibits a unique pattern — a one-of-a-kind gold masterpiece.

Showcasing this new material, Audemars Piguet has highlighted that it can be used for cases as well as other parts. For example, camouflage gold can be used to make the famous octagonal Royal Oak bezel or bracelet links.

The 34 mm Royal Oak which models the new material shows Chroma Gold with both polished and satin-brushed finishes. So the material's creative possibilities shouldn't limit the designers. We look forward to seeing camouflage gold in Audemars Piguet's future collections.