Posts Tagged ‘Royal Oak’
‘Mini Jumbo’ 4332SA Audemars Piguet Royal Oak
In the time the very first 36mm Royal Oak, the 4332, was released, bimetal was the most desirable. The Royal Oak was introduced to elevate steel beyond its initial tool watch remit. But almost as soon as the ink from Genta’s pen had dried, it was introduced in precious metal. This was the 80s. Stockbrokers…
Read More25730ST Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Dual Time
Although AP might’ve been first to the integrated bracelet, they were a good 3-4 decades behind on the travel watch (depending on your definition). In fairness, it took VC an extra decade. This is the Royal Oak Dual Time; AP don’t make it anymore, discontinued almost a decade, but it’s one of the most usable…
Read MoreCream Dial 25594ST Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Day Date
For all the collectability that surrounds the cream dial 16550 Explorer II, you’d imagine a cream dial Royal Oak would see drastically more furor. After all, it was AP’s loyalists who practically burned Bennahmias at the stake, deservedly so, for the Code 11.59 release. One would imagine there would be particularly eager attention when cream…
Read MoreTropical 4100BA Audemars Piguet Royal Oak
Technically speaking, this is a blue dial. If you order an extract of archive from AP, it will tell you it’s a blue Stern-made petit tapisserie. Except it isn’t, is it? This is blue in the same way that David Bowie dressed reserved: maybe in the early years, but by Ashes to Ashes he wore…
Read More14800TR Audemars Piguet Tantalum Royal Oak
To me, John Krasinski will always be the guy from The Office: affable, mild-mannered, agreeable. But have you seen his recent work? Some time around 2014, he hit what I call the Hollywood second puberty. Then came the traditional Men’s Health magazine cover, a 13 Hours of Benghazi role, and Jack Ryan (which would’ve been…
Read More6005BA Audemars Piguet Rectangular ‘Royal Oak’
This is a Royal Oak in the same way that Yoko Ono is a member of The Beatles . . .which is to say this isn’t a Royal Oak. Despite the bracelet and design language similarities, AP never called the 6005 Jumbo a Royal Oak, it went simply by the ‘Quartz Line’. But between friends,…
Read More25594SA Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Day-Date Moonphase
There are watches you love right away, watches that shine brighter than Margo Robbie and have Nelson Mandela’s depth of character. 1518s, Rexheps, George Daniels, etc. Others though, take a little warming to. The two-tone (SA) ref. 25594 is neither. This is a watch that is so iconoclast that it somehow loops back to being…
Read More‘Yves Klein’ 25820ST Audemars Piguet Royal Oak QP
About five years ago, I encountered my first Yves Klein Royal Oak at a collector meetup in San Francisco. I made an all-too-obvious audible gasp when I clocked it. My girlfriend of the time, who was starting to learn the ropes, said, ‘So that’s just a blue dial Royal Oak, right?’ as I started to…
Read More6005ST Audemars Piguet Rectangular Royal Oak
To some, this is one of the most blasphemous watches to come out of Le Brassus. It wears the name Royal Oak, but wasn’t designed by Genta. It’s not even a mechanical watch, no, it hails from the height of quartz. The ref. 6005 Rectangular Royal Oak is part uncanny valley, part Porsche SUV (something…
Read MoreTropical 36 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak
The midsized neo-vintage RO known as the 14790 looks better to me today than it ever has. The tide of neo-vintage is rising anyway, but this ship has a hydrofoil on it or something. But they don’t all look like this. After introduction taking over from the first ref. 4100 in 1992, it remained in…
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