Description

The ‘Royal Oak’ overturned the prevailing codes in 1972 during a period of existential crisis for the watch industry due to the boom of the cheap Quartz watches made in Asia.
The company had to come with a bold, solid stainless sports steel luxury watch, they gave the mission to Gerald Genta to design it.
He got the inspiration from a deep-sea-diving helmet, the result was an octagonal bezel, visible mounting screws, a large case of 39mm with an integrated bracelet, a very futuristic design for the seventies.
Within 2-3 years they sold about 1000 watches establishing a new segment within the industry and pioneered the popularity and desirability of the steel sports luxury watch.
The first model released was the reference 5402 known today as the “Royal Oak A series”, with a thin automatic calibre 2121 movement that is still made today.
Since they treated steel as gold, the level of finishing was remarkable and so was the retail price, for comparison purpose a similar Rolex sport watch was 10x cheaper.
Today, Audemars Piguet still produces a range of Royal Oaks in different sizes (33 to 41mm) for ladies and men, from titanium, rose gold, yellow gold and platinum metals, various dial colours and with different complications.

*This novelty and award wining “Aiguille d’Or” of 2019 Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie de Genève is a true work of perfection!

The famous Royal Oak collection counts another member with this model. An ultra-thin case in platinum with 41mm diameter reveals a blue satin-brushed dial with a perpetual function displayed as follow : An astronomical moon-phase with aventurine at 12 o’clock, just above the AP logo • Month counter at 3 o’clock with the leap year indictor • Date counter at 6 o’clock with the famous 31 in red • Day counter at 9 o’clock with day & night indicator. Central hands indicates the hours and minutes on white-gold applied hour-markers.

All this is powered by the amazing Calibre 5133 with a thickness of only 0.35mm!! And this prowess is visible through the sapphire case-back along with the semi-skeleton oscillating weight. Admire the work of the watchmakers in Le Brassus.

An elegant platinum bracelet will fix this very exclusive edition around few lucky wrists.

** Exclusive Edition **

Audemars Piguet – bio

Audemars Piguet is a Swiss manufacturer of mechanical watches founded in 1875. They began in the Vallée de Joux. Jules Louis Audemars formed a partnership with Edward Auguste Piguet. Audemars created complicated blank watch movements for other manufactures to use. Piguet specialized in the final regulation of watches. They then split responsibilities when they began their own company. Audemars was in charge of production and technical aspects while Piguet focused on sales and management. One of their first achievements was creating the first repeater wristwatch in 1892 and in 1972 the iconic steel “Royal Oak”.