The Royal Oak: A Watch Masterpiece at 50

A Horological Canvas

The Royal Oak’s first complication, day and date indicators, arrived in 1983, with its first excessive complication, the perpetual calendar, touchdown a yr later.

In 1993, the mannequin spawned the 42-millimeter chronograph Offshore, which had an extreme-sport theme. And new gem-set items and stone dials corresponding to lapis lazuli have been added to the combination.

Sizes have been explored through the ’90s, too. A 20-millimeter mannequin known as the Royal Oak Mini, barely greater than the diameter of a penny, grew to become the smallest Royal Oak ever made. “You possibly can actually discover a Royal Oak for each wrist measurement,” Mr. Bacs mentioned. (This yr a number of public sale homes, together with Phillips and Ineichen Auctioneers in Zurich, have scheduled gross sales devoted fully to the Royal Oak.)

As the last decade wore on, the Royal Oak emerged as the home’s foremost horological canvas, the place actions and supplies have been examined, however all the time anchored by the watch’s unique design codes. For instance, there was a restricted version within the uncommon blue-gray alloy tantalum, and, in 1997, a mixture of metal and platinum for a 25-piece skeletonized perpetual calendar. (Final yr a type of fashions offered at Phillips for 403,200 Swiss francs, or $434,240, greater than 5 occasions its minimal sale estimate.)

The twenty fifth birthday observance in 1997 grew to become an ode to new issues, together with a chronograph, a limited-edition tourbillon wound from the again (the one Royal Oak with out a crown) and a Grande Complication incorporating a minute repeater, split-second chronograph and perpetual calendar, amongst different capabilities.

Audemars Piguet is without doubt one of the few remaining family-run, unbiased watchmakers in Switzerland (with its headquarters and museum in Le Brassus), and its want for individuality was encapsulated in 2002 by one other Royal Oak offshoot: the Royal Oak Idea assortment, which performed with technical developments and strange supplies like alacrite, a cobalt-based alloy, and carbon. And final yr its collaboration with Marvel positioned a 3-D white gold determine of the Black Panther on the dial of a flying tourbillon, a restricted version of 250 items that offered out.