Posts Tagged ‘Quantième Perpétuel’
25654ST Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Quantième Perpétuel
We’ve all gotten used to wild Laurent Ferrier Grand Sport Tourbillons, FPJ Sport Rattrapantes, or even RMs, but this was the first time high complication met sporting ambition. It is impossible to overstate the significance of reference 5554, the Royal Oak QP, first debuted in 1984. Collectors and enthusiasts know, but everyone else has forgotten.…
Read More25558BA Audemars Piguet Quantième Perpétuel Openwork
Many ask what the ultimate 90s QP really is. Many will say a Beyer or Saatchi 3940. The VC equivalent of ultra-desirable, low volume is the 43032 Skeleton, preferably with blue subdials. The Audemars Piguet equivalent is this. Audemars Piguet saved complicated mechanical watchmaking in 1978 with the reference 5548. This is the 25558, the…
Read More25686BA Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Quantième Perpétuel
This was the RM of its day, just with more substance; AP invented the combination high complication with sporting ambition in the 1984 ref. 5554. This is, and to ours will likely forever remain, the apex of Royal Oak collecting. Maybe not this precise iteration, but the pre-leap year QP as a category, of which…
Read More25558BA Audemars Piguet Quantième Perpétuel Openwork
Despite the fact that they’ve almost entirely forgotten about it in favor of things like Spider-Man Royal Oaks, strange permutations of the Code 11.59 that nobody asked for, and stroking John Mayer’s ego, Audemars Piguet saved complicated mechanical watchmaking in 1978 with the reference 5548. This is the 25558, the first openwork (skeletonized) model of…
Read More2050 IWC ‘Romana’ Perpetual Calendar, Platinum
At its release in ’94, this ref. 2050 was the thinnest perpetual calendar calibre ever at just 3.1mm. It remains to this day a technical marvel, yet it’s all but entirely forgotten. The 2050 was a flag placed in the ground for Schaffhausen in what was a very active battle for the thinnest complicated calibres,…
Read More25657BA Audemars Piguet Quantième Perpétuel
It is not an exaggeration to say that much of the fantastic complicated watchmaking at places like Patek, VC, Journe, RW Smith, or even Lange today owes their existence in large part to this watch and its progeny. This was the watch which, in the highest throes of the quartz crisis, first defied convention to…
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