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Courtesy Assouline
Courtesy Assouline

Why Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Remains One of the Most Enduring Watches Ever

Stephen Watson

September 21, 2022
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Designed in 1972, at a time when a luxury watch made of steel was still a radical concept, Audemars Piguet’s nautical-inspired Royal Oak captured the “stealth wealth” style of the moment, mirroring the cutting-edge ethos of the French fashion scene (think: Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, Pierre Cardin), as well as the era’s groundbreaking architecture, such as Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano’s inside-out postmodernist Pompidou Centre in Paris, completed in 1977. “To me, the Royal Oak is a work of art that happens to be a watch,” says British GQ editor Bill Prince, author of the new book Royal Oak: From Iconoclast to Icon (Assouline), coming out October 12. “It’s one of those works of culture that has managed to cut through time, in the sense that it was born of an era, but it already had the criteria to be bigger than the era.”

“The Royal Oak,” he continues, “simply redrew the horological map. It placed Audemars Piguet’s home in the small village of Les Brassus, in the Vallée de Joux, at the heart of a new era of haute horology.”

Royal Oak the book serves as a weighty, glossy, in-depth look at the watch that, since its 1972 debut—and now celebrating its 50th anniversary—has maintained its longstanding distinction as one of the world’s most highly desired and sought-after timepieces. Luxuriously printed and bound, the oversized, slipcased book is a must-have for any Audemars Piguet collector, or simply the watch-curious—or, for that matter, anyone remotely interested in how a design masterpiece can succeed through a disruptive leap of faith. The book isn’t just about a masterfully crafted watch; it also offers a broad cultural perspective, smartly contextualizing its subject matter through art, architecture, and pop culture—from music to fashion to global politics.

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A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)
A spread from “Royal Oak.” (Courtesy Assouline)

Available in three different formats—a standard edition; a version with an exclusive metal plaque, made for top clients; and a mind-boggling, oversized XXL format with an easel and a wood box on wheels—Royal Oak: From Iconoclast to Icon explores how a meticulously made timepiece continues to capture the imagination of watch obsessives and collectors today. (The extraordinary XXL version is currently on view at the AP House in New York’s Meatpacking District and is worth seeking out.)

“When [battery-powered] quartz watches came into the Swiss watch industry, Audemars Piguet challenging this notion with the world’s most expensive stainless-steel watch may not have looked like the greatest idea at the time,’ Prince says. “But as we see, all these disruptive elements gave the company extraordinary longevity and success. That’s why the Royal Oak is still here today.”

# Watches# Luxury# Books

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Photo: John C. Hawthorne. Courtesy Alex Tatarsky.

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Alex Tatarsky on Art as a Means to Live Out the Absurd

It’s late August, and I’m walking on Grand Street in Lower Manhattan. It’s one of those summer evenings that’s cooler than expected, a pleasant foreshadowing of fall. I’m on my way to discuss compost with the artist Alex Tatarsky, and as I head east from the subway, I pass through the dense, networked scents of the edge of Chinatown: the briny tang of fish markets, the sweet snatch of a fresh egg waffle from a rolled ice cream shop, the yeasty cloud that floats around the famous bialy shop. Approaching Abrons Art Center, where Tatarsky is doing pick-up rehearsals for an out-of-town run of their show Dirt Trip, this close-packed olfactory landscape opens up into something with more space: a faint vegetal whiff from a small vacant lot, the not unpleasant chemical tang from a passing truck, and beyond these, the smell of a certain rot rolling in from the East River.

Courtesy Blue Note Records

culture

An Album of Cover Songs Honors the Legacy of Leonard Cohen

Though nearly six years have gone by since Leonard Cohen’s passing, the long shadow cast by his legacy as one of the 20th century’s most esteemed and idiosyncratic singer-songwriters shows no signs of lifting from the public’s imagination anytime soon. From the enveloping warmth of “Suzanne,” to the high drama of “Hallelujah,” to the chilling minimalist and gospel juxtaposition of his swansong “You Want it Darker,” Cohen managed to constantly reinvent himself, leaving behind the rare achievement of a musical body of work whose most impressive moments exist across eras.

Courtesy OMA

culture

For a Tiffany & Co. Pop-Up in Paris, OMA Designs a Literal Jewelry Box

Hiring a world-class architecture firm to design a tiny temporary retail space may seem an extravagant choice, but given the high aspirations of Tiffany & Co.—especially now that it’s owned by the French luxury conglomerate LVMH—it makes sense for the American jewelry company’s Paris debut under its new French banner.