• Free worldwide delivery

When we think of Audemars Piguet nowadays, the first thing we think about is the Royal Oak (or the code 11.59 if you’re Jasper). But that obscures AP’s distinguished history of producing beautifully finished complicated watches.The traditional Swiss watch industry was in disarray in the early 1980s as cheap Japanese quartz-powered watches flooded the market. Many manufacturers either had to close up shop or were forced to consolidate just to keep afloat. Right when the mechanical watch looked to have lost all relevance, Audemars Piguet released a manual-winding, skeletonized dressy chronograph with exquisite hand finishing.As you can guess, the watch was an oddity, with its rather oversized case (measuring 37 mm), dressy looks, and missing dial. So few of them were produced and sold that it’s relegated to an obscure corner of AP’s famed history. Barely any information about this model is available online. We found one that was auctioned by Christie’s Hong Kong in 2018. Yet, we’ve managed to unearth one and it’s in impeccable condition. Remarkably, its unique case and movement numbers are separated by only one digit from the one auctioned at Christie’s. That goes to show that these watches were probably produced in just one very small batch in the early 1980s.The watch is chock full of elegant details. The 18k yellow-gold case, for instance, features a wonderful stepped design on the bezel and features small round chronograph pushers. The exquisitely hand engraved manual-winding movement is visible through the front and back of the watch. To make this possible, AP produced a transparent sapphire crystal dial that only contains two cream-colored chronograph sub-registers at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions and a thin cream-colored minute track at the outer rim of the dial. A cool detail is that the “Audemars Piguet” text, which is traditionally found on the dial at the 12 o’ clock position, is moved to the underside of the sapphire crystal!The watch comes on a nice matte black alligator strap together with an 18k yellow-gold Audemars Piguet-signed ardillon buckle.