Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Quantième Perpétuel 25820BA

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Combine the iconic and forward-looking design of Gerald Genta with Audemars Piguet’s mastery of haute horlogerie and you get this insane Quantième Perpétuel Royal Oak.

The first Royal Oak to feature a perpetual calendar complication, the ref. 5554, was released in 1983 and its descendants have been in production ever since. 

This ref. 25820 BA from 2006 features a 39mm octagonal case and integrated bracelet, designed by Gerald Genta. Both the case and bracelet are executed in 18k yellow gold and are in razor sharp condition. The exquisite hand finished automatic movement with skeletonized 21k white gold rotor is visible through a sapphire caseback.

The contrasting silver dial features the characteristic ‘Grande Tappisserie’ engraving, lovely applied 18k yellow gold baton hour markers, and 18k yellow hands. The calendar complications (day, month, and date) are displayed in the three upper subdials together with fierce blued sword hands, whereas the smaller dial at the 6 o’clock position displays a lovely moonphase indicator alongside the Audemars Piguet signature. A cool detail on the 25820 is that it’s the first regular production perpetual calendar Royal Oak to display the leap-year indicator on the dial (here in the sub-dial at the 12 o’clock position).

The watch is in wonderful condition with sharp bevelled edges and comes with the original oversized (trust us, it’s huge..) lacquered wooden display case, open papers, and an extract of the Audemars Piguet archives.

Introduction

Audemars 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.In 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.