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Above<br />
The Royal Oak<br />
Perpetual Calendar<br />
and Royal Oak<br />
Perpetual Calendar<br />
Openworked, in<br />
black ceramic case<br />
and bracelet.<br />
version of this. I might be wrong, but I think 25829ST is<br />
the reference number. It was in 39mm and it was in steel,<br />
because back then I couldn’t afford platinum. Well, I mean,<br />
I just didn’t want to spend that much on platinum, right?<br />
And I actually flew to Geneva and picked it up because that<br />
watch was the screensaver on my phone. I didn’t even own<br />
the watch. But it was a screensaver on my computer. And<br />
no one took good photos of it, so they were all super grainy.<br />
And you know, they’re on PuristSPro, like on websites like<br />
that. I would just like be scrolling, finding photos, or more<br />
information on the watch, right? And I eventually bought it.<br />
That was my daily beater for a very long time, but then<br />
it broke. Because it was my fault. I hit it against something.<br />
And then I was like trying to pull out the crown and the<br />
entire crown just fell out. And I was like… f**k! So when<br />
they announced this watch, I went “oh my God”. At this<br />
point I’d been wearing the ceramic perpetual calendar for<br />
about a year and so I knew how dynamic the Royal Oak in full<br />
ceramic is. It’s understated in the sense that if you’re not a<br />
watch person and you see someone wearing the Royal Oak<br />
in black ceramic, they just think it’s some regular watch but<br />
when a watch dude sees it, they’re like, “oh that’s cool”.<br />
I love watches that have that stealth effect. What’s<br />
interesting is that you have both the skeleton and nonskeleton<br />
ceramic perpetuals. A lot of people would have<br />
maybe picked up the first one and maybe traded that in for<br />
the second model. You decided you wanted both. Do you<br />
feel that they actually capture two different moods?<br />
I think they do. To be completely honest, I’ve been wearing<br />
[the titanium China edition] one. I mean, it’s the latest<br />
thing. But I mean, if you just look at them, I personally<br />
love openworking and skeletonization. And the fact that<br />
this watch reminds me of the first expensive AP or just<br />
conventionally very expensive watch that I bought just means<br />
a lot. And so I’ve been wearing [the skeletonized model]<br />
pretty much every day until I got [the titanium], because this<br />
means more.<br />
Onto this watch on the blue strap. In some ways this watch<br />
symbolises a friendship that really started to emerge<br />
between yourself and the CEO of Audemars Piguet, Mr<br />
François Bennahmias.<br />
So with [the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon Chronograph<br />
Openworked Selfwinding], every time I look at it I just like<br />
get lost. I mean, my mind just goes blank because it’s so<br />
beautiful. Yeah, with this watch it was pretty interesting. I<br />
mean, I was actually with you in Shanghai, I think a week<br />
before I went to Le Brassus. We had lunch with François in<br />
his office. This was after the manufacture visit and all that,<br />
which is amazing.<br />
Anyway after lunch, he just asked me, “Baby blue, white<br />
or red?” And I had zero context. I thought he was talking<br />
about the French flag or the American flag. And I said “baby<br />
blue”. Then he calls the head of product at the time and<br />
after a few minutes, she comes up with a box and covers<br />
my eyes and I was wearing the Double Balance watch at the<br />
time. She takes off the Double Balance, puts it on the table<br />
and puts a watch on my wrist. And it was the Royal Oak<br />
Concept Tourbillon Chronograph. And I opened my eyes<br />
and I looked at it and, you know when<br />
you get the feeling there’re butterflies<br />
in your stomach, but it’s the worst<br />
kind of butterflies because, you know<br />
that’s going to cost a lot of money. But<br />
you kind of know that you have to buy<br />
it, because it’s immediate. It’s love at<br />
first sight, right? And so that happened<br />
with that watch. What was amazing<br />
was the first time I met François, he<br />
asked what I think AP should do to<br />
improve their product and he asked<br />
a lot of the customers that. One of<br />
the things that I said was a more<br />
ergonomic Concept case.<br />
I love it because it’s simultaneously<br />
super complicated. It’s a tourbillon<br />
chronograph and it’s skeletonized<br />
on top of that. But it’s a modern<br />
skeletonization which is very<br />
beautiful and it’s self-winding with a<br />
peripheral mass, so you don’t see it.<br />
So you have an unobstructed view of<br />
all the coolness in here. All the works.<br />
But what’s interesting is that it’s<br />
almost Zen-like reductionism and a<br />
VINTAGE 165
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