25594SA Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Day Date

There are watches you love immediately. To most, this ref. 25594SA is not one of those watches. The 25594 is one of those iconoclast watches that’s so polarizing that it somehow circles back around to being completely attractive. To start, the midsized Royal Oak isn’t for everyone. Then two-tone: it may be wider-understood and growing in popularity amongst watch enthusiasts today, but not universally loved. And then you have the two estranging big-eyes that gave the similar ref. 25572 RO Day-Date the nickname ‘The Owl’, but flanked by a moonphase. It’s all a bit much, but perfectly so. 

The 25594 was introduced in ’84 and was one of the most successful designs of neo-era AP, in production longer than most Royal Oaks, from 1985 until ’06. That said, over 20 years only 6,534 examples were made. Of those, just under half are in steel, the other half mostly split between bimetal and yellow gold. Interestingly, there are just 19 in white gold and a sole example in rose gold sold in Spain in 1997. Neither of the rarest two golds have ever surfaced at auction. We have but 1,802 of this uber-80s bimetal spec. The point I’m making here is that, actually, these may not be quite as common as overall production figures would have one believe. And yup, the dials on these should all be this grey with gold subdials. The gold dials in SA cases you see are service.

Perhaps more importantly, though, there’s nothing else like it. The Nautilus didn’t get a Day Date until 2010, and only as part of an Annual Calendar. The Overseas comes in retrograde date or all-out QP. Rolex’s Day-Date is an institution, but not integrated nor sporting. When you try something bravely new and it works, you’re in a class of one. The 25594 enjoyed years of total uniqueness, with nothing else remotely like it in existence. As a dear friend once put it to me, it belongs permanently in a 964 Cabriolet in Miami on a very tan wrist. And well not universally loved, that’s a pretty cool aesthetic.

This example looks fantastic. Its case is very full, with sharp edges and full proportions. Its dial is lovely, with light patina on the tritium and nothing else of note. It comes as watch only from a well-regarded Lausanne retailer.