Audemars Royal Oak 'Blanc'

About the Watch

In 1971 Audemars Piguet realized that, without a disruptive change, a financial collapse was inevitable. Elaborating some feedback that they received from the Italian market about possible interest for a steel luxury watch, the management of the manufacture decided it was time to introduce something totally new, a sporty yet elegant timepiece as never seen before. The designer of choice for this task was a designer born in Geneva in 1931 from an Italian father and a Swiss mother: Gerald Genta. Not a new designer, rather one of the most famous watch designer at that time, having created successful watches for Universal Genève (Polerouter Microtors, White Shadow, Golden Shadow), Omega (Constellation) and Patek Philippe (Golden Ellipse). Two decades after the lines inception, the Royal Oak collection was enriched with a model featuring a chronograph function in the form of the Royal Oak Offshore. Released in 1998, and originaly enclosed in a 39mm case, the ref. 25860ST then brought the complication into the main Royal Oak line. The present model stems from 2016, when Audemars Piguet released the ref. 26320ST with the proven movement 2385. It comes as a full set with an Audemars Piguet warranty card, manual instruction, original box and invoice of AP service (Dated 2022).

About the Brand

The Manufacture was established in 1875 in Le Brassus, a village at the heart of La Vallée-de-Joux in the Swiss Jura, by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet, two enterprising young men who combined their talent to develop and produce watches featuring rare complications. Already in these early days, an Audemars-Piguet watch was prized by admirers of fine mechanical timepieces. Through determination, imagination and discipline, they inscribed their name on the wider history of watchmaking. The company they established has never left the hands of the founding families.