Closed | Important watches – Saturday 16 May 2015

The Royal Oak was presented in 1972 and was Audemars Piguet’s last try to get through one of the most challenging times in the company’s 100 years long history. It was a risky decision to make the Royal Oak in stainless steel since that made it more expensive to manufacture them than most gold watches that Audemars Piguet produced at the time. When it was released the watch had a price at about 3200 Swiss francs – and this was more than 40 years ago! As a comparison, a steel Rolex Submariner cost around 280 Swiss francs at the time. But Audemars Piguet used the high price as a marketing gimmick

The Royal Oak was designed by the now a days legendary Gérald Genta and the octagonal case was inspired by portholes. The case back was made in one piece to ensure the waterproofing ability and this was the first time a metal bracelet was integrated with a watch. But the fact that the screws were visible made customers who were used to more traditional high quality watches to ask: so expensive - and they can’t even hide the screws?

The representatives of the company were surely worried about the fact that the watch didn’t get a major breakthrough straight away. It would actually take about a year until the production and sales got going for real and Audemars Piguet finally was rescued from bankruptcy.
Today, Royal Oak is the company’s flagship model and it’s made in several different versions for both men and women.