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 ref. 25720 features an 18K rose gold case with a lovely 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, most commonly with intricate guilloché detailing on the detail. This particular execution is one of the rares among them as it features a romantic hand-engraved floral pattern on the 18K rose 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 ref. 25720OR dates back to 1994 and has recently had a full service at Audemars Piguet. The watch comes on a black alligator leather Audemars Piguet strap with an 18K rose gold AP-signed buckle and is accompanied by an extract of the Audemars Piguet archives.