Audemars Piguet  Royal Oak  Watches

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak: An Unprecedented Steel Watch

Two design concepts stand out in every Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch. First off, the octagonal bezel with hexagonal screws. The purpose of imitating a diver’s helmet, with screws holding the helmet’s faceplate, is to prevent the water from coming inside the watch. The idea that if this can be applied in a helmet, the same can be done in a watch, was such a genius concept that many applauded. 

Then there is the tappiserie dial that ended up becoming a consistent element in all Royal Oaks. Through a precision metalwork chisel called a burin, the guilloché tappiserie that looks like lozenges is engraved on the brass dial. With these two radical design concepts, it’s so easy to spot an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak among thousands of watches.

Received with reluctance at first, the Royal Oak became one of the most popular collections manufactured by Audemars Piguet, with even spin offs like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept. It has 114 models in the current collection, and more than 160 legacy watches all made from stainless steel, platinum, titanium, to different variations of gold. It has also released a total of 14 limited-edition watches, including beautiful gem-set versions.

Price list at a Glance: The Most Popular Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Watches 

How much is an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch? 

From stainless steel to variations of gold, gem set watches, and watches with specific functions like chronograph and perpetual calendar, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak price can go from $15,000 USD up to $165,000 USD. Such a wide price range can give you choices of varying designs and standards.

Prices for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Stainless Steel Watches

If you’re looking for AP Royal Oak’s signature steel case, the Royal Oak Ref. 15500ST.OO.1220ST.02 is a classic choice priced at $41,349 USD. It is adorned with a slate grey grande tappiserie dial in a 41mm case and stainless steel AP folding clasp bracelet. Inside is the manufacture calibre 4302 with a power reserve of 70 hours.

Prices for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Gold Watches

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch has numerous versions of gold watches in their catalog, from white and yellow to rose gold. The 37mm AP Royal Oak Ref. 15451OR.ZZ.1256OR.03 is an elegant gold on gold watch. A 40-brilliant cut diamond studded bezel and pink gold-toned dial are enclosed in an 18K pink gold case and ensured with an 18K pink gold bracelet. It is powered by a powerful in-house calibre 3120. This Audemars Piguet watch is priced at $41,589 USD.

Prices for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Watches With Diamonds 

Another diamond-studded watch is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Quartz Ref. 67651SR.ZZ.1261SR.01, made of stainless steel case, diamond-set 18K pink gold bezel, and an 18K pink gold crown and links. It is a 33mm elegant yet simple display of silver-toned tappiserrie pattern dial, pink gold applied hour markers, and 40 brilliant-cut diamonds that surround the bezel. Inside it ticks with the Calibre 2713, a quartz movement displaying hours, minutes, and date, and finished with Geneva stripes, enhancing the aesthetic appeal even inside the movement.

Prices for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph Watches

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph Ref. 26317BC.OO.1256BC.01 retails at $66,768 USD. This timepiece is a limited-edition watch with only 100 pieces. It is encased in an 18K white gold model with a dial engraved with the iconic blue face tappiserrie, and adorned with chronograph counters. It’s a classic fine polished men’s watch at 38mm case width and 11mm thickness.

Another Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph watch to check out is the AP Royal Oak Ref. 26331ST.OO.1220ST.03 that retails at $51,969 USD. It is designed with a contemporary two-tone dial of silvered tappiserrie and black chronograph counters on a signature 41mm stainless steel case.  

Prices for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar

The 41mm Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked Ref. 26585CE.OO.1225CE.01 boasts technical mastery in its display — an openworked sapphire dial featuring a movement in pink gold components and black ceramics. It is water resistant up to 20m and boasts a 40-hour power reserve.

The largest watches from the catalog measure at 44mm. This includes the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Openworked Grande Complication Ref. 26065IS.OO.1105IS.01 made of steel case featuring three horological complications secured inside a steel bezel, sapphire crystal, and screw-locked crown. 

The Royal Oak Minute Repeater Supersonnerie Ref. 26591TI.OO.1252TI.02 made of titanium is a limited edition of 35 pieces featuring an elegant salmon tappisserie dial. The limited-edition of 100 pieces Royal Oak Tourbillon Chronograph Openworked Ref. 26343CE.OO.1247CE.01 is a beautiful black ceramic case glare proofed with sapphire crystal enclosing satin-brushed black dials and counters.

Vintage Audemars Piguet Royal Oak — Is it good to buy for investment?

Vintage Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks receive the highest prices at auction due to its boxy uncanny designs that only discerning collectors appreciate. There’s no reason to pass up on one if you can get your hands on the Original 1972 Royal Oak A-Series Ultra Thin Jumbo Ref. 5402. The Royal Oak A-series, the first 1000 pieces released in 1971, is still the most sought after by collectors — easy to recognize for the AP initials on top of the 6 o’clock rather than the 12 o’clock like successive series.

Another vintage worth looking for includes the Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra Thin Ref. 15206PT.OO.1240PT.01, a special-edition watch that has only 70 pieces. It is only sold in selected Audemars Piguet Boutiques.

How the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak’s Iconic Design Came About

For many watch collectors, unique designs coupled with the best materials are what makes a watch worth buying. But to have a timepiece with a very rich interesting history is such a rare opportunity to pass up on. This is particularly true for the Royal Oak. Many would say it was a hail mary call to Gerald Genta who designed an unprecedented watch that would save Audemars Piguet from financial ruin and eventually a collection that would make the company renowned for.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak wouldn’t even have come into existence if it weren’t for the Quartz Crisis in the 1970s. Curiously, a time when mechanical watches are being replaced in the market with quartz watches would have put Swiss manufacturers like Audemars Piguet at its demise. True enough, many other Swiss watch manufacturers scrambled to recover from dwindling sales. Either they had to come up (fast) with an innovative idea, or succumb to an inevitable financial ruin. 

George Golay, AP’s managing director, had a plan. He called on Gerald Genta, a design genius who created designs for Omega and Patek Philippe, with a very specific request. The goal was to revive sales by capitalizing on an Italian market’s demand for an elegant sports steel watch. Considering that stainless steel was more of a choice for utilitarian watches, using it for luxury sports watches was an unusual request. 

Within 24 hours after Golay’s call, Gerald Genta presented the initial designs of the first Original 1972 Royal Oak Ref. 5402 watch. The case resembles a traditional diver’s helmet, with an octagonal shape bezel secured by 8 visible hexagonal screws. The AP watch had a blue face adorned with a petit tapisserie pattern.

The design itself making the gasket and screws visible, not to mention the exorbitant price tag of 3,300 Swiss Francs, a rather more expensive timepiece than gold luxury watches, built skepticism among watch enthusiasts. Some predicted the company’s bankruptcy. Surprisingly, it was the other way around. The AP watches became a huge success. 

In 1981, they created the first Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar with a Calibre 2021 and 2800. Soon after in 1984, Audemars Piguet created the Royal Oak Day/Date Moonphase with a secondary dial for day and date displays at 3 and 9. The moonphase placed at 6 o’clock. Several variations of the Royal Oak followed such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore led by a 22-year-old designer Emmanuel Gueit on its 20th anniversary, as well as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept on its 30th.

Reasons to Own an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch is most instantly recognizable through its stainless steel case resembling a battleship’s porthole with which the design inspiration was drawn from. It also carries a unique aesthetic appeal due to the “tappiserie” style applied in the dial. 

For many watch enthusiasts, such a design makes Royal Oak somewhat of an acquired taste. For this reason, it makes the Royal Oak the ultimate cult watch that would receive such a high price at auctions. If celebrities like John Mayer, Steph Curry, Will Smith, Justin Bieber, Serena Williams, are all lining up to get their hands on a Royal Oak, there’s no reason you shouldn’t as well.

Owning a piece such as the Royal Oak RD#2 Ref. 26585IP.OO.1240IP.01, a 6.33mm thin world’s flattest automatic watch with a perpetual calendar released in 2018, you would have a watch quadrupling its value in the years to come.

The Royal Oak, overall, has a classic cult design with useful functions. These reasons alone makes owning an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak absolutely worth it.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak: An Exceptionally Radical Timepiece

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is an exceptional timepiece with a revolutionary design. It is both ostentatious and unassumingly modest due to its boxy uncanny appearance which still looks perfectly timeless to go with any outfit. This kind of balance makes the Royal Oak a watch that would endure the test of time.