Ever so creative, the watch wizards at Audemars Piguet revived the centuries old wandering hours complication and introduced it for the first time in a wrist watch.

The Campani brothers first developed the wandering hours in the 1600s in a clock for the Pope. In the early 1990s, Audemars Piguet breathed new life in this fascinating complication by incorporating it in a watch that could be worn on the wrist.

These Star Wheel watches work as follows. Three floating sapphire disks displaying the hours are mounted to an exposed and central rotating wheel, which features lovely hand-finished polishing and anglage details. As the structure turns, the actual hour rotates into view and passes along a 0-60 minute sector at the top of the dial. The remaining disks, meanwhile, are obscured against the background until it’s their time to step up.

This 25720BA features an 18k yellow gold case with a lovely double-stepped bezel and short downturned lugs. The case features classic dimensions, with a diameter of 36 mm and a thickness of just 9 mm. The Star Wheel was produced in a number of variations. This watch features the most classic among them: a lovely finely engraved guilloché pattern on the 18k yellow gold dial.

The watch runs on Audemars Piguet’s automatic caliber 2224 movement, itself based on a Jaeger-LeCoultre movement. A sapphire display case back allows for an unobstructed view of the movement with its classic Côtes de Genève finishing and the rotor that is partially made of 21k gold.

This reference 25720BA dates back to 1993 and comes on a black ostrich leather Audemars Piguet strap with an 18k yellow gold AP-signed buckle.