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How to Collect Audemars Piguet
With a mix of classic complications and industry-shaking icons, few brands offer more variety and more history to enjoy than the Le Brassus manufacture behind the Royal Oak.
W hether you’re surveying the grandstands at Wimbledon’s Centre Court or checking out the latest from the Oscars’ red carpet, there is one thing you can count on in addition to a star-studded crowd: Audemars Piguet wristwatches. Few watch brands – if any – have embedded themselves as deeply in the pop-culture consciousness as AP. The watches are name-checked in chart-topping songs and seen courtside at nearly every NBA game. Celebrity ambassadors launch custom pieces designed to suit their tastes. And collectors the world over lust after rare, limited-edition references.
But despite its of-the-moment appearances, Audemars Piguet is anything but an overnight success. The company has been quietly forging some of the finest watches in the world from the sleepy hamlet of Le Brassus, Switzerland, for nearly a century and a half. These include ornate minute-repeating wristwatches, experimental complications, trend-setting Royal Oaks and everything in between.
The History of Audemars Piguet
Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet first joined forces in Le Brassus in 1875, combining their engineering and design skills to craft highly technical watch movements for other makers. This specialized approach was common at the time, but the two quickly distinguished themselves from their peers with creations like minute-repeating movements small enough for wristwatches as well as combinations of complications such as tourbillons, chronographs and perpetual calendars, often in single calibers. It was soon clear that AP was anything but typical. Watches carrying their movements as well as watches sold under their own moniker became highly desirable among the most discerning collectors. It was an early “if you know, you know” type of watchmaking.
This continued into the early decades of the 20th century, as wristwatches rose to prominence and pocket watches slowly faded into history. AP continued making movements and assembling watches bearing other brands’ names, but its own collection began to gain more popularity. The most well-regarded AP watches were typically either extremely simple-looking, elegant watches with highly accurate, chronometer-grade movements inside or highly complex watches that defied what many thought was possible in a wristwatch, continuing to explore combinations of chronographs, calendars, tourbillons and chiming mechanisms. AP’s expertise in complications remains among the most outstanding in the world.
Throughout the midcentury, though, these wristwatches were produced in extremely limited quantities by today’s standard. Often only a handful or a few dozen examples were produced in any given configuration, occasionally featuring small variations in dial design or construction across a given reference. This makes for extremely rich scholarship today and ensures that these watches will always remain highly collectible to those who appreciate their combination of rarity and inherent quality.
The downside to this is that when the Quartz Crisis hit Switzerland in the 1970s, with lower cost quartz watches flooding the market and the demand for mechanical complications plummeting, Audemars Piguet found itself in trouble. Still owned by members of the Audemars family, they knew it would take a bold idea to save the company. Luckily, AP found just the thing.
The Royal Oak Revival
In 1972, Audemars Piguet introduced the Royal Oak. It was an extremely expensive sports watch made entirely of stainless steel, with a bold, geometric design, an integrated bracelet and a high-end movement inside. Nothing like this had ever been made before. It was designed by Gérald Genta, who was virtually unknown then but would go on to become the most legendary watch designer of all time.
At first, the AP Royal Oak was a flop. Customers didn’t understand why they should pay a premium for something so iconoclastic. But luckily for Audemars Piguet and the broader watch world, it eventually caught on and became one of the most instantly recognizable watches ever made. Since then, Royal Oak watches have been seen on the wrists of important people from fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld to basketball superstar LeBron James to comedian Kevin Hart.
By the early 1990s, the Royal Oak had become totally iconic, and AP decided to expand the collection with the Royal Oak Offshore chronograph. This was the first oversized sports watch to make a serious impact on the market, the effects of which are still felt today. The ensuing decades would see countless limited-edition and customized Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore introductions, often made in collaboration with notable people – again changing the way watches were made and consumed in popular culture.
Today, Audemars Piguet continues its tradition of shaking things up, with models like the CODE 11.59 riling up the watch community on its launch in 2019 and its continued exploration of the Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore as vehicles for new complications and innovations.
Whether you are looking at AP’s historic pocket watches or its latest creations, this ethos and approach come through loud and clear. Collectors approach Audemars Piguet with equal parts excitement and reverence, and there is truly no end to the journey one can go on investigating these significant, eye-catching watches.
Families of Audemars Piguet Watches
While Audemars Piguet has made a wide array of watches over its nearly 150-year history, here is a guide to the most important categories and references so that you can begin exploring this important, iconic brand.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak
The AP Royal Oak is more than just a watch – it created the entire archetype of the luxury sports watch, which has been the dominant style of watch among collectors, enthusiasts and stylish people over the last decade-plus. Gérald Genta’s legendary creation changed how watches were designed, elevated stainless steel into the same pantheon as gold and platinum and spawned countless imitators (some more authentic than others).
Over the decades since its first introduction in 1972, Audemars Piguet has continued to iterate and innovate on the Royal Oak. It has been made in nearly every material conceivable, housing every color of dial, with and without gemstones, utilizing surprisingly simple and exceedingly complicated movements and more. The story of the Royal Oak continues to be written, and despite its incredible history, it feels like there are still myriad avenues left to explore.
The Classics: The original Royal Oak is the reference 5402ST, also called the Jumbo because of its oversized-for-the-time 39mm case. It was released in 1972 as a series of just 1,000 watches, each numbered on the caseback along with the letter A. These so-called A Series Royal Oaks are as OG as it gets and still highly desirable among collectors. Once demand started to take off, subsequent B, C and D series were released, in larger quantities, along with a two-tone steel-and-yellow-gold version too.
Modern Hits: The standard Royal Oak today is the reference 15510, which has a larger 41mm case, a thicker profile and a central seconds hand. It is available in a variety of metals and with a handful of dial variants. However, it is the modern Jumbo reference 16202, with its vintage-inspired proportions, that is most desirable among collectors now, whether in the original steel or variations like pink-gold or titanium. In recent years, ceramic versions of the Royal Oak have emerged as some of the hardest-to-get watches on the planet, especially the open-worked perpetual calendar reference 26585CE.
Holy Grails: There are truly countless Royal Oak watches that attract fervent attention from collectors, and whole books have been dedicated to highly collectible Royal Oak watches. However, the Jumbo-sized 39mm perpetual calendar models, such as references 25554, 25654 and 25636, have finally started to get the attention they have always deserved and continue to be highly sought after as collectible pieces that are also fun to wear.
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Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore
In 1989, as the Royal Oak approached its 20th anniversary, Audemars Piguet decided to iterate on the already iconic watch, making it larger and adding a chronograph function. In 1993, one year after that anniversary, designer Emmanuel Gueit reinvented Genta’s design and the AP Royal Oak Offshore again pushed the entire watch industry forward, ushering in the era of oversized sport watches. It was the right watch at the right time.
The introduction of Audemars Piguet’s Offshore coincided with the watch industry beginning to embrace popular culture in a serious way, marketing watches alongside models and movie stars for the first time. The Offshore was at the center of this, with limited editions produced in collaboration with the likes of Arnold Schwartzeneggar and Jay-Z, and highly creative uses of color, materials and gemstones.
The Offshore also spawned a non-chronograph dive watch, the Royal Oak Offshore Diver, introduced in 2010. However, it is the original chronograph version that is most well regarded and collectible.
The Classics: The original Royal Oak Offshore is the reference 25721ST, again made entirely in stainless steel with an integrated bracelet. However, the first series of Offshores was limited to just 100 pieces with no numbering on the casebacks. After those first 100 pieces, subsequent examples are numbered going up from 101. The watch is nicknamed the Beast because of its oversize dimensions and hefty weight.
Modern Hits: Today there are basically two families of Offshore Chronographs: 42mm versions that follow the early ’90s design and larger 43mm versions with a more aggressive aesthetic (including scaled-up tapisserie dials, large pushers and more). The reference 26238ST is the modern analog to the 1993 original, while more exotic versions, such as the all-black-ceramic reference 26238CE take the original form factor and update it with new materials and finishes.
Holy Grails: One of the appealing things about collecting an Offshore Royal Oak is that there are different looks and tie-ins to suit different tastes. Thus, which Offshores are considered grails varies collector to collector. However, important milestone watches such as the reference 25922 End of Days, created for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name, the reference 26205AU Ginza 7, created to raise money for those affected by a tsunami in Japan, and the reference 26474TI QEII 2018 Cup, with its all-titanium construction, all fit the bill.
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Audemars Piguet Complications
From the earliest days of Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet toiling away together in their original workshop, high complications have been central to what distinguishes Audemars Piguet from its competition. The Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore might get the bulk of the attention from the paparazzi, but the real connoisseurs know that this is only one small facet of what AP can do.
Some manufactures specialize in a particular type of complication, but Audemars Piguet high complication watches runs the gamut, with exceptional chiming watches, chronographs, tourbillons and calendars, often combined in single movements. Sometimes Audemars Piguet combines these haute horlogerie movements with Royal Oak cases, inviting a whole different type of collector to appreciate the watchmaking under the hood.
The Classics: If you dig deep in AP history, you can find dozens of different complicated references from the 1930s-60s. Many of these were made in extremely small quantities, and they range from simple calendars to minute repeaters. Watches like these can command huge prices at auction. However, complicated AP watches from the 1980s and ’90s, such as the reference 5548 perpetual calendar, offer a taste of this style of watchmaking at a much more accessible level.
Modern Hits: Audemars Piguet has two contemporary series of watches completely dedicated to research and development: The Royal Oak Concept line and the RD line. Each offers the brand a platform for showing off its most avant-garde watchmaking. Concept watches like the historically important CCW1 riff on classic complications while also experimenting with materials, whereas the Royal Oak RD#2 (later released as the reference 26586IP) was built around a new ultra-thin perpetual calendar mechanism that has since made its way into other Audemars Piguet watches.
Holy Grails: While AP’s perpetual calendars and minute repeaters are each incredible in their own rights, they become all the more impressive when combined in single watches. Audemars Piguets has made grand complication watches since its pocket watch days, and it continues to have them in the collection in watches such at the Royal Oak reference 26605, which features a skeletonized perpetual calendar with both a minute repeater and a split-seconds chronograph.
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Signature Shapes
It’s an astonishingly effective act of branding that the mere whiff of an octagonal bezel instantly conjures the names Audemars Piguet and Royal Oak among anyone familiar with watches. However, AP had already been in the habit of making non-round watches long before the Royal Oak entered the picture, with square and cushion shaped cases featuring prominently in the brand’s archive.
More recently, the brand has designed two additional collections around unique case shapes: The Millenary and CODE 11.59. The former takes the shape of a slightly domed oval that stretches toward the hand and elbow when worn, while the latter is an octagon wrapped in a circle, appearing slightly different from every angle.
The Classics: The most basic Millenary models from the early 2010s are also the most popular with collectors. They feature semi-skeletonized movements and off-center dials that lean into the watch’s dramatic shape and large size. CODE 11.59 was only introduced in 2019, and more recent models with simpler dials are already preferred to the original references.
Modern Hits: Audemars Piguet phased out the Millenary collection after the introduction of the CODE 11.59, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see special editions released in the future. Within the CODE 11.59 collection, collectors gravitate most strongly to those models that integrate unusual materials, such as the reference 26394 perpetual calendar, which features an aventurine dial, and the reference 26393 chronograph, which has a combination ceramic and gold case.
Holy Grails: There are complicated and esoteric versions of both the Millenary and CODE 11.50 watches, but there is one unusual complication that unites the two collections: the Starwheel. This is AP’s take on the wandering hours compilation, which uses rotating discs to display the time along a static minutes track. For the Millenary, the most classic version is the reference 25898 from the late ’90s and early ’00s, especially the rare titanium variant. And for the CODE 11.59 it is the reference 15212, which features an aventurine dial and might be the most well-regarded CODE 11.59 model overall.
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With a century and a half of truly innovative watchmaking under its belt, Audemars Piguet shows no signs of slowing down. Whether you’re interested in collecting the classics or in seeking out the next horological trend, AP is sure to have something enticing to offer (or a few somethings, more likely). If you’re looking for more guidance, Sotheby’s incredible watch specialists can help you find the right AP watch – past or present – to add to your collection.
