'Yves Klein' Dial 25594ST Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Day Date Moonphase

The ref. 25594ST ‘Owl’ is a Royal Oak that made its name from its Day Date apertures, wide-eyed with a strangely Rolex-adjacent complication. It’s decidedly not a QP, but also no 4100. And, for that, collectors adore it. It is an eclectic Royal Oak, neither as crazy valuable as say a 5554 nor as accessible as a 14790. It is, in a word, fun. And this is a far more fun 25594 than most, dial code 02. Or, as it’s known by people who study these things: Yves Klein.

Yves Klein blue appears in many Royal Oaks, from the 14790 right through to 25654. It is always two things when it appears. First, it’s electric blue except when aged, and then it goes purple. Second, regardless of real numbers, it’s always small production. Interestingly, AP themselves never called this Yves Klein. The official line from AP is blue sapphire lacquer dial. Yet, the French artist has claim to this color, and the name has become associated regardless. In either the proper Owl ref. 25572 or this 25594, Yves Klein makes up a tiny number of production. No one knows the exact number, but I’d be comfortable saying it’s definitely less than 5% of production. Likely much lower. And there are only 3131 examples of the 25594ST to begin with.

All that said, there is some market precedent. At Phillips NY 2022, one hit 100K USD with just an Extract, a value prior to unseen. Then a number appeared on market, about 3, usually selling around 80-90K. Strangely, the year following that result one sold with a complete set at Phillips NY again for 50K. Since, they’ve hovered around 70-80K, seemingly not choosing either side. Regardless of the strange market dynamics that surround hyper rare neo-vintage Royal Oaks right now, this watch is just cool. It’s fun as a result of being the mid-sized Owl and not a full-on 25654. And yet, it’s a pretty serious watch by the numbers and as result of a hyper rare dial. Yves Klein once famously said, ‘Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond dimensions, where other colours are not.’ Indeed, the Yves Klein 25594 is in a market other Royal Oaks are not, the quite serious collector’s 70k Royal Oak. We’re fans.

This example has a marvelous dial, no marks whatsoever and beautiful indices. Its case is strong with sharp bevels and the bezel is tall. It looks fantastic. This example hails from Japan with its full set, Certificate of Origin and all.