25810OR Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar 120th Anniversary

In 1995, Audemars Piguet turned 120. To mark the occasion, AP looked into their catalogue for the most prestigious, representative piece it could build upon and landed, naturally, on the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar. The result was the ref. 25810OR, produced that year in a run of just 120 examples—one for each year of the manufacture's history. It's essentially a 25686 rendered pink on pink, in the classic 39mm case, with a peripheral week pointer and one of the world's best rotors: the calibre 2120/2801 inside carries a 22k gold mass hand-engraved '120' in commemoration.

The photography for the first these images of this find are courtesy of a prior Phillips example, a previously sold 25810OR in similar condition to the example we are featuring in the market now. 

The 25810OR brought two firsts to the Royal Oak. It was the first time a week indicator had been applied to the model—that outer scale reads weeks 1 through 52, not dates (a not terribly useful but quite interesting addition to the perpetual calendars we know and love). More importantly, it was the first Royal Oak QP ever to feature leap year indication, reviving a complication AP had pioneered with the ref. 5516 of the 1950s, the first perpetual calendar wristwatch to display the leap year cycle. It's easy to look back with rose tinted glasses, but that indication makes the Royal Oak QP infinitely more usable, and every RO QP since owes something to this reference.

While that's all great, this one appeals for the beauty, arguably equal to its pre-indication peers. The subdials are radially grained where the dial is lightly vertically brushed, a subtle contrast that catches light beautifully. Pink on pink is, and has historically remained, one of the most special classic Swiss aesthetics regardless of manufacture. And then there's the anniversary subdial which, while a bit controversial, certainly marks the occasion clearly.

The values of these things, though, are wild. The 25820OR that came out right after would normally sit around 180K USD. But the 25810OR has been a 250K USD piece or above for as long as I can remember, and it doesn't really move: 220K during the lows, 280K during the highs. That's as solid as it gets. Sure, there are more valuable and desirable Royal Oak QPs. But the pink on pink of the 120th anniversary... I'm not sure it can be beaten.

This example features a strong case with the full works. Its dial appears to have a full salmon and the case shows little to no surface wear from what's visible. It comes from a well-regarded NYC retailer.