Audemars Piguet

The first Royal Oak was created in 1972 and designed by legendary watchmaker, Gerald Genta, who drew inspiration for its shape from a ship's porthole and completed its blueprints overnight. It was introduced as the world's first luxury watch in stainless steel, in the attempt to revitalize traditional watchmaking from the quartz crisis. Made in 1978, the present example belongs to the "C-Series" of the reference 5402, and retains a lovely feature passed down by the very first "A-Series", which would be the "AP" logo being placed at 6 o'clock. It is powered by the Jaeger-based calibre AP 2121, which has a very reliable construction and still used by modern Royal Oak references. Over time, the dial of the present watch has developed a very organic, brown tropical colour over the tapisserie pattern which is quite uncommon for the reference. This renders the watch remarkably attractive and the present example is further complete with its presentation box and has its production confirmed by an Extrait De Registre. In 2022, the Royal Oak celebrates its 50 anniversary of production, and the present watch would be the perfect opportunity to acquire a rare reference of this collection.