25829BA Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Skeleton

The skeletonized 90s QPs are seriously significant things. Not just for the holy trinity, but for watches. They perfectly capture the attitude of post crisis optimism, Switzerland was back. And they weren’t going to let you forget it. The Royal Oak QP was born into that atmosphere, a direct descendent of AP’s two most successful product lines. This was the second generation of Royal Oak QP, the first skeleton with leap year indication. That’s a rather small detail that only some collectors will care about. But all respect it either way. 102 examples of this ref. exist in yellow gold. It’s one of the last great RO QPs.

Calibre 2120/2800 is deservingly one of the most famed in watches. It’s a JLC 920 ébauche, adapted from from the 5548, and is still the calibre that had to be developed in secret after-hours by a passionate few, as the watchmakers feared AP’s spending wouldn’t allow it. At launch, it was the world’s thinnest self-winding QP. Which meant the Royal Oak case could accept it and as such the greatest sporting complication of the 90s was born. The 5554 was first. Then came skeletonization. The first skeletonized ref. was the 25636. All those without leap year fall under this reference.

Then we arrive to this ref. 25829, released in the mid 90s. The dial is sapphire and the bridges have been worked down to bones, engraved, beveled where appropriate, and brushed or polished. In addition to the 102 of this yellow gold, there were 371 in steel, 174 in pink gold, 156 in platinum, 25 in steel plus platinum, and 47 in the unusual tantalum combinations. We see the updated mixed caps AP line, but perhaps more notably feuille hands. That’s quite a romantic, classical shape for something so modern. The pre-leap year examples sit a bit above these value-wise, but they’re otherwise very similar 39mm, razor thin experiences. By this point in production, they were all slightly thicker cases with proper water resistance, something the early stuff struggled with.

A lot of very valuable complicated sporting watches feel a bit contrived today. This was daring at the time, adventurous, and a real watchmaking-based risk that AP might’ve just as easily had fail as win. We’re glad it won. Because this metaphorical golden era yielded some of the most attractive watches AP has ever made.