Long before the Royal Oak came out, Audemars Piguet had made a name for itself by producing some of the world’s most exquisite and complicated dress watches. The Jules Audemars line, named after one of the company’s two founding fathers, pays homage to that tradition

The 25718 was a forward-looking watch when it was introduced in 1991. During a time when very few companies were making any tourbillon wrist watches, Audemars Piguet came up with the world’s first self-winding tourbillon with a date and a power reserve complication. Just as important, the dimensions of the watch, with its oversized 39 mm case, were ahead of its time as well.

This 25718 from the late 1990s features an 18k yellow gold case with a bold convex bezel and classically-minded tear drop lugs. By moving the crown from its traditional placement on the left hand side of the case to the caseback, the clean lines of the watch are left uninterrupted.

The classic ivory dial features an aperture at the six o’clock position for the one minute tourbillon carriage. The incorporation of three recessed subsidiary registers with plenty of white space in between gives the dial of this rather complicated watch a balanced and harmonious feel. The large sub-register at the 12 o’clock position features lovely painted Roman numerals and blackened leaf hands to display the time, while the smaller registers at 3 and 9 incorporate the power reserve and date functions.

The ref. 25718 was produced in very small numbers and this piece is number 42 from that production run. The watch is in excellent condition and comes on a black alligator leather Audemars Piguet strap.