Peach Dial 14800BA Audemars Piguet Royal Oak

If I were to ask a reader at random, ‘What is a Royal Oak?’ Most would answer something like this, ‘A luxury, steel sports watch where the case is integrated to the bracelet with an octagonal bezel and monocoque case.’ This 14800BA is, well gold. And you’ll note, it’s on a strap. So what gives? Released in 1992, the 14800 was the first thing to be called a Royal Oak that didn’t come on a steel bracelet. It is also the start of all the outrageous permutations of Royal Oak that come on rubber straps now like the Tamara Ralph or, shudder, Black Panther. But that’s not the right way to think about the 14800. There’s one way history will frame this. This was AP’s Aquanaut.

Collectors of means in the early 1990s were starting to prioritize casual luxury, that much was clear. Bill Gates wears shorts. But here’s what’s interesting: the Royal Oak on a strap came out before the Nautilus on a strap. The Aquanaut (kind of, semantics) ref. 5060S was effectively a Nautilus on a leather strap, which debuted in 1995 or 1996. It’s hard to imagine a world where that idea wasn’t at least influenced by this, which came out in 1992. Interestingly, the design concept proved so controversial that AP’s helmsmen, Steven Urquhart and Georges-Henri Meylan, dared not ask Gerald Genta to do the job and instead hired in independent designer Jörg Hysek to pen it. This is the only other holy trinity watch done in this era by the man who brought you the 222 and you can see a little bit of that in the lug profile. Now there’s some horological trivia.

The reference spans some 20 material and dial variations. Of those, a few stand out. There’s tantalum and pink gold, which is quite the combination, military dials, and even Yves Klein dials. This is a yellow gold case with a dial that’s verging on peach instead of salmon. I’ll level with you, I’m not sure what color this dial was originally. I’ve heard people use the phrase tropical to describe these. Some have said these were gold or champagne that turned tropical and others say they made a salmon dial in the gold case. Either way, It’s a combination very specific to this reference within Audemars Piguet and very beautiful. Quite the lovely, slightly dressy summer watch that few will be aware of or brave enough to pick up. Plus, it’s less maybe half a 5065 in value. I might even consider ordering a custom rubber strap, if anyone is mad enough to try making one. It’s divisive, but the great watches often are.

This example looks mega. The dial tone is even and rosy. All tritium appears present and accounted for. The case has probably seen a light polish (honest hard to tell from photos) but the engravings are deep and it’s certainly in great condition given how we normally see these. It comes from a well-regarded London retailer.