When you think of Audemars Piguet, there’s a good chance you’re imagining a Royal Oak. But, make no mistake, Audemars Piguet has a distinguished history of producing exquisite dress watches.

Audemars Piguet is a company of extremes: the producer of ultra classic dress watches as well as bombastic luxury sports models like the Royal Oak. This ref. 5381 was certainly intended as part of the former category.

In fact, this beautiful example from 1970 is the quintessential representation of a luxury dress watch. The watch features an elegant 34 mm case that is a leftover from the minimalism of the 1960s. Meanwhile, the narrow bezel and slim straight lugs give the watch a larger appearance on the wrist than its dimensions would suggest.

Most dress watches from this era were executed in yellow gold, yet this specimen goes off the beaten path and employs a cool and understated 18k white gold alloy instead. The choice of case material plays well with the deep blue dial with classy 18k white gold stick indices and matching thin sword hands.

The cursive ‘Automatic’ text on the lower half of the dial gives away another lovely detail about this watch. While most classic dress pieces from that era featured manual winding movements, the 5381 was powered by an ultra-thin automatic movement. And not just any movement at that, but the legendary caliber 2121 that would later be used in the Jumbo Royal Oak as well.

This reference 5381BC is in excellent condition and comes on a black alligator leather strap as well as with an extract from the Audemars Piguet archives.