REVOLUTION_International_Vol 54

Wei Koh: Welcome Austen, to our
new office in Singapore. We’re so
glad that you’re here to talk about
a brand that’s incredibly close to
your heart, and that is Audemars
Piguet. I think it’s safe to say
that it’s also a brand that you’re
incredibly passionate about even
before that relationship started.
Austen Chu: Audemars Piguet
was the first luxury watch brand
that I actually got into that’s in the
conventional “Holy Trinity” that everyone knows. I was
mainly drawn into the brand because of the Royal Oak. So
when I was 18, I had saved up a little bit of money and I was
looking at watches online, as we do. I was looking at the
Nautilus because I’ve always liked sporty watches and the
Royal Oak just really screamed out at me like, “yo, you have
to buy me right now”! I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Back
then it was a reference 15400 that was the regular entry
model and I was trying to decide between white, black and
blue. And obviously blue was the one that spoke to me the
most. So I just went to the AP boutique and back then there
was no waitlist, I walked in and there was one just there, a
blue-dial 15400 on the day of my 18th birthday. So I decided
I was gonna buy it and I did.
So how does an 18-year-old walk into an Audemars Piguet
boutique and buy a Royal Oak for himself on his 18th
birthday?
I started my first company when I was 15 and sold it when
I was 19. We started off by doing marketing and I guess
we made our own parties and promoted our own parties
pretty much, facilitating the filling of the void between the
foreigners living in China and the Chinese.
Coming to that, let’s talk about a watch that was launched
quite recently, the China limited-edition perpetual
calendar Royal Oak. It’s an homage to the motherland and
if I’m not wrong, a watch that was created in collaboration
with you. How did that come about?
So that conversation started very organically. I pretty much
just called François [Bennahmias, CEO of Audemars
Piguet] one day and said to him, “Hey, you know Chinese
customers make up a fair amount of your demographic.
Maybe you guys should do something for them, you know, to
show your appreciation, show your love for Greater China.”
And because, personally, I think the “Pride of China” watch
that they made over 10 years ago, you know, it’s not my
thing. And François said, “Oh if you’re such a know-it-all,
why don’t you propose something?”
It was a very casual conversation and I didn’t think much
of it. But I went home and I was thinking about what would
be a cool watch. My personal favorite complication is a
perpetual calendar because if you’re meeting someone who
doesn’t know watchmaking and they’re asking like, “how
much is that watch on your wrist”? And you tell them and
they’re baffled, “why would you spend so much money on a
watch”? You explain it to them. And when you’re explaining
it to them, I think the best complication to actually get a
non-watch person into watches is to explain how a perpetual
calendar works. You tell them that there’re no batteries, but
it knows how many days there are in every month, and every
four years it even knows that there’s an additional leap day.
You tell someone that and they’re like, how the f**k, you see
their brain starts spinning. They’re trying to understand
how that’s possible with no batteries. They think that’s
interesting and so it’s always been my favorite complication.
That’s why I picked that watch. And with titanium it’s half
the weight of steel. Look at how light it is. Half the weight of
steel and it has a gunmetal finish.
Audemars Piguet’s finishing is stunning. If you look at
it, you see the level of quality in the brushing contrasted
by the razor-sharp polishing. At the same time it feels so
tactile, it’s amazing.
Yeah, absolutely. That’s why I picked titanium and they’ve
also never really used titanium on the Royal Oaks. With the
Royal Oak it’s always platinum and titanium and I’ve always
wished that certain watches would have the full titanium
From left
Austen’s travelling
collection includes:
the Royal Oak
Jumbo reference
5402 A-series in
steel; the Royal
Oak Double
Balance Wheel
Openworked in
steel; the Royal Oak
Concept Tourbillon
Chronograph
Openworked
Selfwinding; the
Royal Oak Perpetual
Calendar China
Edition; the Royal
Oak Perpetual
Calendar in ceramic
and Royal Oak
Perpetual Calendar
Openworked
in ceramic.
VINTAGE 163