21 minute read
Celebrates Audemars Piguet’s iconic watch the Royal Oak
Mighty Oak
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak may be the most famous watch you have never heard of. On its 50th anniversary, specialist Sarah Fergusson reveals why it remains one of the most sought-after timepieces in the world
To most outside the watch community, Audemars Piguet (AP) could seem to be somewhat of a dark horse, in the background while also being responsible for one of today’s ‘hype’ watches, as we often call them. Along with the Rolex Daytona and the Patek Philippe Nautilus, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is one of the three most famous, and sought-after, watches of the moment. The history of the Royal Oak, and of the Audemars Piguet brand, are fascinating. A look at these is very timely given that 2022 is the 50th anniversary year of the release of the Royal Oak, their most successful watch to date.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak on sale this month is marked ‘A-1485’ to the caseback meaning it was the 1,485th watch of its type ever made, image courtesy of Lyon & Turnbull
The history of AP
Audemars Piguet may not quite be a household name but they reported a turnover of more than €1bn in 2020, producing around 40,000 watches annually. The company is independent, which is relatively unusual in the watch world today. Unlike many larger brands including Omega, IWC, Jaeger-leCoultre and Longines, the company is also family-owned.
The brand was founded in Le Brassus, Switzerland, in 1875 by Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet. Already watchmakers by trade, they both worked solely on creating quality, often complicated, movements. Significantly, they did so by hand, despite increasing mechanisation of the industry at home and, substantially, in the USA. By the 20th century, Jules and Edward had begun to co-ordinate the production of complete watches by bringing together the component parts from a number of local sources.
Like many of the most prestigious Swiss brands, AP boasts a number of technical innovations in its history. They are credited with making the first jump hour wrist watch in the 1920s and the first skeletonised watch in the 1930s. In the 1940s, they produced the world’s slimmest watch, with a movement of only 2.45mm. They continued to create technically-superior slim movements through the late 20th century and the 1950s and 1960s saw them follow industry trends, creating many of what we now refer to as ‘dress’ watches.
Above Workers at the watchmakers, image courtesy of Audemars Piguet
Above right The bracelet’s design also makes it stand out in a crowd, image courtesy of Audemars Piguet
Left AP founders Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet, image courtesy of Audemars Piguet
Below left An advert for the Swiss firm dates to c. 1895, image courtesy of Audemars Piguet
Below right The Royal Oak features the distinctive octagonal bezel, image courtesy of Lyon & Turnbull
Revolutionary bracelet
The bracelet also marked a departure from the norm. Steel bracelets had been a stalwart of the sports watch since their invention; leather straps could not be used – water, sweat being an enemy of the material. However, unlike Rolex’s Oyster bracelet, seen on the Submariner among others, the Royal Oak bracelet is more complex, detailed and beautiful. It has two rows of rounded-rectangular links running perpendicular to the main tapered rectangular links running horizontally from the case.
Like the screws to the bezel, these play an aesthetic and practical role, they link the main bracelet sections together and allow it to sit snug to the wrist, and they add an element to the watch that plays a part in making it the unmistakable piece that it is, even at a glance. In unerring dedication to quality, AP turned to highly-skilled bracelet makers Gay Freres for production of this unique strap.
The Royal Oak
Which brings us to the Royal Oak. If we know one thing about this undeniably iconic wrist watch, it is that it broke with all traditions, within AP and beyond. Taking a step back and looking at a simplified timeline, the Royal Oak was not a culmination of all that came before it in terms of its design, materials or price point. AP’s previous watches lent just a little to the appearance of the Royal Oak. The brand’s watches from the 1960s feature baton hour markers and a slim case profile (thanks to those impressive movements).
Those predecessors, including many ‘ultra thin’ models, fit nicely into the ‘fashionable’ watches available from all brands at the time; simple dials housed in gold (mostly round) cases, on dark leather straps. So where did the Royal Oak come from?
Crisis point
The answer lies in the wider situation within the watch world as a whole: the quartz crisis. In the late 1960s, new technology from Japan lead to the mass production of inexpensive, battery-powered, or quartz, wristwatches. Robust in their simplicity, and affordable, the quartz crisis, when viewed through the eyes of the consumer at the time, is not really a crisis at all. We can call it a democratisation of watches, a revolution; they were now available to all, at a variety of prices, and many could now have multiple watches, should they choose to.
For countless traditional watchmaking firms, this revolution was of course catastrophic. Many folded but many firms ploughed on, knowing that their more expensive mechanical watches offered something completely different to the perhaps more traditional or discerning consumer. Many also began to offer quartz models alongside mechanical ones, even Rolex had their Oysterquartz (released in 1970.)
Above One of the new watches launched this year. A skeletonised Royal Oak 16204, image courtesy of Audemars
Right Manufacturing the iconic design, image courtesy of Audemars Piguet
Fighting back
AP’s managing director of the time, Georges Golay’s response was to offer something that was truly revolutionary, the Royal Oak 5402, created by a designer whose influence on watch design in the 20th century is second to none. In 1972, they released a larger-cased (39mm) steel sports watch with a super slim movement, one that was more expensive than their staple gold watches. Gerald Genta (1931-2011) was the Swiss watch designer responsible. In his career he worked with brands including Omega, IWC and Patek Philippe. Not only is he responsible for the AP Royal Oak (inspired he said, by a traditional diver’s helmet) he also designed another of the top three most coveted watches of today, mentioned earlier – the Patek Philippe Nautilus.
Luxury brand
AP, and Genta, did not invent a whole new genre of timepieces, and yet the Royal Oak is often referred to as the ‘first luxury sports watch.’ Among others, brands including Rolex had been making sports or tool watches since the 1950s – the GMT Master, Submariner and so on. With design driven by purpose however, such watches were bound to elements including their coloured bezels (for timing or calculations) and very legible dials (to be seen in the dark.) The Royal Oak, when viewed in this wider context, really is something different. The word ‘luxury’ here is key; quite the juxtaposition with ‘sports’ or ‘tool.’
Octagonal design
Firstly, the tapisserie dial, or watch face, has quite the unique appearance for a watch at the time (and even now.) Made by dial specialists Stern for AP, it is textured in form and is created by engraving a brass disc to form raised pyramidal squares. The disc is then painted to the desired colour. Going further than this is that iconic bezel. The bezel (the section of metal acting as a border to the glass) is octagonal, a striking shape in what was a world of otherwise round sports watches. It is the single feature that makes the Royal Oak so recognisable across a room, and the industry.
The bezel features hexagonal screwheads, eight in total, and although these are not ‘screws’ in the strictest sense (a hexagonal shape cannot be screwed into a hexagonal hole; there’s no scope for movement) they are
in fact structurally integral to the case itself – they are not just decorative. The movement in the first Royal Oak is, of course, a very slim, automatic one, and named the 2121 by AP. This superior movement was the result of a collaboration between Jaeger-leCoultre and AP, with the financial support from AP, Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe.
Initial run
It is not clear how successful the watch was initially, commentary differs across sources, but we know that after its first run of 2,000 watches in 1972, there were around 2,500 more made in the following five years. In 1977, the company released the Royal Oak in yellow gold, white gold and bi-colour options and during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the company increased their output and workforce, while other companies were going under (thanks to the quartz crisis…) The following decades saw the Royal Oak evolve, with new metals and case sizes, and, in the 1990s, a new model in variation on the original – the Royal Oak Offshore, was introduced.
The Royal Oak today
Today, well what can we say? All the superlatives apply – as we have noted, the watch, whether new or vintage, is one of the most sought after in the world. In the last four years, prices for examples that come from the inaugural 2,000 pieces have soared dramatically. Phillips, who have sold several during this time, posted results that increased by tens of thousands of pounds with each passing year. We must note that condition, ‘completeness’ and provenance affect prices realised for these pieces, so comparing results from year to year is not an exact science, but nonetheless, the trend is there.
Sarah Fergusson is head of watches at the Glasgow auction house Lyon & Turnbull with a passion for mid-20th century chronograph wrist watches. An ‘A-series’ Royal Oak, one of the original production run from 1972 featuring the number ‘A-1485’ to the caseback, has an estimate of £25,000-£30,000 at Lyon & Turnbull’s Select Watches sale on March 30.
Left The new 39mm Royal Oak “Jumbo” extra-thin 16202, image courtesy of Audemars Piguet
Right The ‘A-series’ Royal Oak from the original 1972 production run in Lyon & Turnbull’s sale on March 30 has an estimate of £25,000-£30,000, image courtesy of Lyon & Turnbull
Below right The reverse of the skeletonised Royal Oak 16204 features the words ’50 years’
The 2022 releases
In its 50th anniversary year, the Royal Oak shows no sign of slowing or retreat. In January, we saw the release of a number of new watches, each with an exhibition caseback marked “50 years.”
One, the Royal Oak Jumbo 16202ST, features a new movement (still extra-thin.) This is the first new movement to grace a Royal Oak since 1972, and a move away from that original 2121 calibre that was a collaborative triumph.
The movement, named the 7121, boasts a better power reserve and a quick set date function. It is also a fully in-house production, something sure to delight collectors.
We have also seen a rose gold-cased skeletonised Royal Oak, with movement visible through the dial, the 16204, which is as striking as it sounds. It features updates and tweaks to the design that improve comfort, look and longevity of features – including the dial.
Pearl Power
For years dismissed as the staple of doughty matriarchs and debutantes, pearls are back and sparking bidding wars in UK salerooms
Pearls have created a global fascination over millennia, like no other gem. There is something magical about their other-worldly luminosity with their beauty lying in their perfection of form and shine. Since they were first discovered pearls have cast a spell: the ancients even believed pearls were formed as oysters opened to catch falling drops of dew.
In China, as early as 2300 BC, pearls were considered as gifts for royalty. In the 1st century BC, Julius Caesar decreed pearls could only be worn by the ruling classes. The discovery of pearls in Central and South America in the 15th and 16th century led to the so-called ‘Pearl Age’ which sparked escalating demand in Western Europe, where ladies of nobility wore elaborate pearl necklaces, earrings, bracelets and brooches. So much so that, by the 19th century, demand for pearl jewellery became so high that oyster supplies began to dwindle.
Above Pearls have attracted jewellery makers throughout the ages
Below left The brooch is part of the parure on sale at Wilson 55 this month which has a total estimate of £1,500£2,500
Below right Byzantine, bracelet, 500-700AD, showing the ancients love of pearls, image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of New York
Georgian designs
Many of the pearls in Georgian jewellery are from the Pinctada radiata oyster found in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and waters around Sri Lanka. Tiny seed pearls were increasingly popular throughout the era and into the Victorian period. Seed pearls, which vary in size from 1-2mm, originated in India, and were used to accent the frame of rings and earrings, as well as being hand sewn onto drilled mother of pearl to create necklaces. Seed pearl pavé – where lines of tiny pearls are set in single or multiple rows – also offered a stylish way for jewellers to incorporate pearls into brooches.
Pearls were also commonly found in mourning jewellery, set around painted portraits or landscapes, or offset by washes of enamel. Fake blown glass ‘pearls’, made from an inner coating of nacre created by making a paste from fish scales giving them an appearance of natural pearls, also became popular.
Edwardian times
As their availability declined in the Edwardian era, their rarity guaranteed pearls were seen as a status symbol – even considered more valuable than diamonds. Another factor was the founding of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd in 1888, which meant diamonds were widely available and relatively affordable. Pearls’ luminosity was also in keeping with the ‘white on white’ theme of Edwardian jewellery, pioneered by Cartier, with many pieces incorporating both diamonds and pearls. It was a trend that lasted until the beginning of WWI.
Necklines, which became more revealing following the conservative Victorian era, gave rise to colliers de chien (or ‘dog collars’) made from a double string of pearls attached to a brooch or gemstone. Equally popular at the time were below-the-waist sautoirs, composed of long ropes of pearls, or beads, with a fringed tassle.
Coco Chanel
The desire for pearls remained so insatiable that imitation versions took over in the 1920s, with their greatest advocate a decade later being Coco Chanel whose single pearl clip earrings were a significant a part of her iconic image. The French designer, who famously declared “a woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls”, wore them prodigiously (often both real and fake together).
Chanel was also the first designer to introduce fake pearls and gemstones into her collections, sparking a trend which is still popular today. Her simplistic garments (think little black dress) provided the perfect canvas to pile on layers of pearls.
Left Byzantine, bracelet, 500-700, gold, silver, pearls, amethyst, sapphire, glass, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Right A cultured pearl straight out of the oyster shell in an open hand at Mooney Mooney, Australia, image shutterstock
Below left A suite of Chanel jewellery including a simulated pearl necklace with a twisted multi strand necklace, stamped Made in France, Chanel, 1983, expected to make £200, sold for £3,100 at Dawsons on January 27
Below right Known as crotalia (from the Greek word for rattle) because they produced a jingling noise when worn, pearl earrings were extremely popular with Roman women, image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
How pearls are created
A natural pearl forms when an irritant, such as a grain of sand, slips in between a mollusc’s shell and its mantle tissue. To protect itself from the irritant, the mollusc secretes layer upon layer of nacre, which is the iridescent material that eventually produces a pearl. For a natural pearl to develop to 18mm in size would take 10 years or longer.
The pearl is either attached to the interior of the shell (blister pearl) or formed within the body of the mollusc (mantle pearl). The sizes vary (from seed pearl, to paragon pearl).
Colours vary, usually depending on the water where the pearl was produced, ranging from pink to blackish, although some are artificially coloured. The finest specimens have a satin lustre.
In addition to the oyster, pearls can be produced by other molluscs and are generally name after the host, for example abalone pearl, clam pearl, conch pearl or mussel.
Cultured pearls
Cultured pearls were developed by the Japanese 20-year-old Kokichi Mikimoto in 1878 who seeding a nucleus into a living oyster. These cultured pearls, promoted as “Mikimoto pearls”, took the UK and European jewellery market by storm with their shape, colour and lustre.
In 1921, the London Star reported that Japanese pearls were so skilfully made that it was impossible to distinguish between them and natural pearls. Mikimoto is still commonly regarded as the founding father of the cultured pearl industry.
Pearl of wisdom
In 2014, Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis offered one of the largest round natural saltwater pearls ever seen at auction.
The gem measured 16.5mm by 17.4mm and weighed 33.15 cts (132.59 grains). Expected to make £80,000-£120,000, it sold for £680,000.
At the time of the sale the auctioneer’s head of jewellery, Jonathan Edwards, said: “It’s incorrect to say that it’s the biggest natural pearl in the world. There are probably a couple of bigger pearls in existence. But it is one of, if not the largest, natural pearl to come up for auction.”
The pearl came from a private vendor whose wife wore it, along with a cultured pearl, as an earring. When Edwards suspected it was natural rather than cultured, he had its origin certified with the Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF).
A gem such as this would have been produced by a gold lip oyster (pinctada maxima) and would have taken the lifetime of the mollusc (or at least 10 years) to develop, probably in the warm waters of the Australian South Seas or even Venezuelan or Panamanian waters.
Left Georgie Gaskin and Arthur Joseph Gaskin, silver necklace with a drop blister pearl. Following the principles of the arts and crafts movement, the Gaskins rejected valuable stones, preferring paste, opals, and blister pearls, image courtesy of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Above right US vicepresident Harris is always seen in pearls
Right The late former British prime minister was a fan of pearls
Below right An early Victorian seed pearl parure, comprising necklace, pair of drop earrings, diamond and seed pearl cross pendant and two brooches has an estimate of £1,500-£2,500 at Wilson 55’s jewellery sale on March 17
Below left The pearl was an impressive 132.59 grains
Who wears them
From the “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher who rarely wore any other jewellery, to Harry Styles who worn a drop pearl earring at the opening of the Met gala in 2019, pearls have been a fashion statement.
Said to symbolise power and fidelity, for centuries, pearls have been adopted by queens, kings and first ladies throughout history, including Michelle Obama and Jacqueline Kennedy, who once famously dubbed them as being “always appropriate”. The current US vice-president Kamala Harris is famous for her pearls.
One reason may be that of etiquette, it was seen as in poor taste to wear diamonds before 6pm but pearls could be worn at any time of day. Men are also adopting them as acceptable pieces of jewellery. Aside from Harry Styles, pearls were spotted on men on the catwalk as far back as 2016 when Pharrell Williams modelled several strings at Chanel. Other famous male wearers are Sir Elton John, Billy Porter and the Jonas Brothers. Finally, the Gen Z’ers are embracing the trend, dressing down the regal favourite with jeans and trainers. It appears pearls will be sought after in salerooms for years to come.
Below A pair of Cartier art deco aquamarine and diamond earrings sold for $43,750 at Christie’s on Feb 9, against an estimate of $25,000-$35,000
BLUE SWOON
March’s gemstone of aquamarine is a cool favourite among jewellers and the royal family
Named after the colour of sea water, aquamarine is the blue to blue-green member of the beryl family. It occurs naturally in a range of shades from pale bluish-green to a strong mid blue and is sandwiched between the headline-stealing emerald and its lesser known siblings of pink morganite and yellow heliodor.
Director of the London jeweller Hancocks, Guy Burton, said: “Aquamarine evokes thoughts of cool blue waters, warm sunny days and blue skies, dreams of summer and carefree days.”
It has been discovered in countries including Mozambique, Madagascar and Brazil where an incredible crystal was discovered in the 1980s weighing about 225,000 carats, or 45kg. After cutting it was named the Dom Pedro and, at 10,363 carats, is today the largest cut aquamarine in the world.
Fashionable in the art deco period of the ‘30s, aquamarines gave jewellers the opportunity to
Above right The Countess of Sophie wore an aquamarine tiara in 2015
Above The ring, with an emerald-cut aquamarine weighing 14.17cts, is priced £16,500, image courtesy of Hancocks
Royal favourite
Queen Elizabeth II has an aquamarine and diamond tiara and matching parure made from gems given to her from the people of Brazil to mark her coronation in 1953. Its highlight is a tiara she later commissioned from Garrard. In 1971, the tiara was added to with fanlike scroll motifs, as seen today. The Royal Collection said: “In the early ‘70s the tiara was adapted to take four scroll ornaments from an aquamarine and diamond jewel given to the Queen by the governor of São Paulo.” The Queen’s daughter-in-law, the Countess of Wessex, is also a fan of the gemstone. She wore a modern version of the Queen’s aquamarine tiara at the wedding of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden in Stockholm in June 2015.
experiment and create bold and daring designs with an almost architectural look in accordance with the geometric look fashionable at the time.
Cartier and aquamarine
From 1932 onwards, much of the French maker Cartier’s aquamarine jewellery was produced by the company’s London branch. During the economic depression of the ‘30s, Cartier started using semi-precious stones such as aquamarine and topaz as a more affordable alternative for their clientele.
In fact, demand was so high for aquamarine at the time correspondence between the London and New York offices in 1936 refers to long delays in commissions owing to “the difficulty of obtaining a supply of good colour aquamarines.”
Dix Noonan Webb’s head of jewellery, Francis Noble, said: “Although economic difficulties also gave rise to a decline in the use of platinum during this period, Cartier continued to use it for their finer creations. Aquamarines, with their flawless clarity, were often reserved for such pieces.” Of the 27 made by Cartier London in 1937 with the coronation of George VI in mind, most were set with aquamarines and diamonds or topaz and diamonds.
A 1940s aquamarine line bracelet mounted in platinum by Cartier sold for £52,000 at London auctioneer Dix Noonan Webb’s auction last November, selling well beyond its estimate of £12,000-£15,000
