Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Quantième Perpétuel 25654ST 'Tuscan'

Sold
Sold
  • Free worldwide delivery

Audemars Piguet is known for its exquisite and historically important perpetual calendar watches. What would happen if you’d combine this high complication with one of the most iconic watches ever made? That’s simple: the ultimate luxury watch.While the Swiss watch industry was under severe pressure during the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, Audemars Piguet took the ballsy move of engineering the world’s thinnest automatic movement with a perpetual calendar complication. The resulting line of precious metal dress watches, introduced in 1978, became a resounding success. Just a few years later, in 1984, the company took another pioneering step by incorporating that very same movement into the iconic Royal Oak. These watches are some of the rarest and most sought-after pieces on the market today.This ref. 25654ST is the third-series execution of the perpetual calendar Royal Oak. Dating back to 1995, it features a 39 mm stainless octagonal case and integrated bracelet, designed by the legendary Gerald Genta. Most executions of the ref. 25654 feature either smooth dials or dials engraved with Audemars Piguet’s tappisserie pattern. This piece, however, features the highly sought after ‘Tuscan’ dial variation. The regal purplish blue dial features an intricately carved pattern and deeply recessed sub-dials, that indicate the day, date, month, and moonphase.Just 272 pieces of the ref. 25654 have been produced in steel and only a small number among them featured a Tuscan dial, making this an exceedingly special watch.The ‘Quantième Perpétuel line is powered by Audemars Piguet caliber 2120/2800 automatic movement, which is derived from Jaeger Lecoultre’s legendary ultra-thin caliber 920 base movement. This base movement was of course used, among others, in AP’s Royal Oak, Patek’s Nautilus, and Vacheron’s 222. For the QP line, Audemars Piguet reworked the 920 to include an incredible perpetual calendar complication as well as a 21k yellow-gold rotor.This rare ref. 25654ST is in excellent condition with sharp edges and corners as well as a tight bracelet. The watch comes with the original Audemars Piguet certificate d’origine and a service box.

Introduction

Audemars PiguetAudemars Piguet is among the holy trinity Swiss maisons d’horlogerie alongside Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. Audemars Piguet has a storied history of producing high-complication watches. It all started in 1875, when Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet founded the company in the heart of the Vallée de Joux, Le Brassus, Switzerland. This pure, rough and wild landscape, with deep, dark forests, ice-cold waters and the omnipresence of rocks and hills, provided inspiration and raw materials for the Swiss watch manufacture to develop the finest watches. Since its inception, Audemars Piguet has specialized in rare, valuable and highly-complicated watches like perpetual calendars, chronographs and chiming watches. Nowadays, the emphasis of Audemars Piguet lies on the iconic Royal Oak line.Royal OakIn 1970, Audemars Piguet instructed Genta to come up with an unprecedented steel watch. As the story goes, he found inspiration whilst seeing a diver at work with an old-fashioned diver’s helmet near Lake Geneva. Staying up all night, Genta drew the design for a circular case with an angular, octagonal bezel, eight visible screws, and an integrated bracelet. The Royal Oak was presented in 1972 as the most expensive steel watch available and it caused an uproar: why was a distinguished maison d’horlogerie putting out a sports watch, let alone in such pedestrian material? Some experts even predicted that the Royal Oak would put Audemars Piguet out of business. Though it took a while to catch on, the Royal Oak is now one of the most iconic and long-lasting watch designs and has spawned an entire product line. It wouldn’t be the first time that Genta would prove a brand’s owners, customers, and industry experts wrong.

Specifications

Shipping

Packages are generally dispatched within 2 days after receipt of payment and are shipped within the Netherlands by Registered Mail through the Dutch carrier PostNL and for other countries by Fedex. Consult us if you prefer another method of shipping. For most destinations tracking is available.