When Bugatti unveiled the FKP Hommage, a tribute to company founder Ettore Bugatti on his 110th birthday, the world wasn’t expecting to see a modern-age Veyron with Chiron Super Sport running gear. Now that the dust has settled, so to speak, let’s talk about some of the details that might’ve been glossed over in the initial excitement. Namely, the centerpiece of its dashboard: the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Tourbillon.
This isn’t merely a timepiece stuck onto a dashboard. Engineers and watchmakers collaborated to integrate the reportedly half-a-million-dollar timepiece into the dashboard, all at the request of the owner. Let that sink in: the clock on the dashboard of this Bugatti is worth about as much as the flagship Lamborghini Revuelto.
Audemars Piguet, founded in 1875 in Le Brassus, Switzerland, has defined luxury watchmaking for nearly 150 years. While their entry-level Royal Oak models start around $20,000 USD, complications like tourbillons command significantly higher prices, with some pieces exceeding $800,000 USD. The partnership between Audemars Piguet and Bugatti dates back several years, cementing both brands as paragons of precision engineering.
The Royal Oak Tourbillon features the signature octagonal bezel, visible through sapphire crystal, allowing passengers to witness the tourbillon mechanism compensating for gravitational effects. Hand-finished components showcase traditional Swiss craftsmanship, with each surface polished to mirror perfection. Fascinatingly, the watch employs an ingenious self-winding system unlike any other. A gondola-shaped component rotates on a diagonal axis several times per hour, powered purely by the car’s movement without any electrical connection. This mechanical poetry means the car itself becomes the timepiece’s energy source, creating a symbiotic relationship between automobile and horology.
Meanwhile, the FKP Hommage itself commands attention with an 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged W16 engine producing 1,479 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of torque. The hypercar accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, reaching a top speed of 261 mph. Only one exists, and its estimated value is well over $12 million but the actual figure is anybody’s guess, really.
Yet, the Royal Oak Tourbillon will remain the dashboard’s undisputed highlight for horology fans. While the FKP Hommage delivers thrills for hypercar fans, this timepiece transforms the cabin into mechanical art. It represents the ultimate fusion of automotive and watchmaking excellence, where the timepiece becomes as celebrated as the machine carrying it forward.
