The Timeless & Traditional AP Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Review

What exactly made the Royal Oak watch into the cult classic that is today?

Expectations always run high when a brand like Audemars Piguet releases something new as was this past January, with the unveiling of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars in yellow gold.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Review

It began in 1972 with the launch of the very first of the many Audemar Piguet's Royal Oak watches. This was the first luxury watch that was made in stainless steel which was worked, and polished, and decorated just like a precious metal.

An innovation as such opened the channels for Audemars Piguet to explore a variety of other materials whether traditional gold watches or downright unconventional such as platinum, carbon, bronze, rubber, ceramic, titanium, highly rust-resistant tantalum, or even cobalt-based alloys such as Alacrite.

Despite the fact that Audemars Piguet over the years has developed a knack for throwing curveballs with regards to what material they use in their Royal Oak watches, this release is going back to tradition with a timeless precious metal; yellow gold.

This Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar (reference# 26574ba.oo.1220ba.01 ) also comes with a lovely retail price tag which is $95,700.

As is the most common with AP Royal Oak watches, a grande tapisserie motif with the famous "waffle dial" made of elevated three-dimensional squares can be seen on the blue dial of this Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch, a color that offsets the 18kt yellow gold case and bracelet just beautifully.

The sub-dials indicate the date, day of the week, month, moon phase at the 6 o'clock position in addition to the leap year indicator at the noon position, an Audemars Piguet innovation that was first introduced on a wristwatch back in 1955. At the heart of this watch beats the new caliber 5134 which holds its power for 40 hours and beats at 19'800 vph. One of the most anticipated gold watches for men this year.

Aside from being a very complicated piece of mechanics and craftsmanship, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks is the sports watched that are favored by the people who are not looking for the same watch their neighbors and friends are wearing.

The AP Royal Oak is a watch that like the wearer, doesn't want to be a cliché. After taking all the details into consideration, the better question would be how could the AP Royal Oak watches not become the cult classics that they are today?