Pre-Owned Audemars Piguet Perpetual Calender First Series 40990296/AS05426

Why We Love It

Complicated vintage dress pieces — particularly ones finished in precious metals and packing a lot of horological heat for their size — are often overlooked these days. But those in the know will recognize that the craftsmanship, materials, and complexity amount to worlds beyond their current market value, and will snatch them up in advance of an inevitable stylistic turn in their direction!

Pieces such as this - a yellow gold Perpetual Calendar Moonphase - are a perfect example of Audemars Piguet's design savoir-faire outside of the cherished Royal Oak.

Finished in 18k yellow gold, this first series Reference 5548 features a 36mm case with a stepped bezel, a crisp gloss white lacquer dial with applied yellow gold indices, a matching pencil handset with blued steel subsidiary hands, and last but certainly not least - AP's Calibre 2120/1 perpetual calendar moonphase movement within.

Remaining in fantastic condition throughout and paires on a signed black leather strap with its matching pin buckle, this is an investment-grade heirloom piece. Timeless. Elegant. Tasteful. This is the type of watch that excites serious collectors and horological newcomers alike.

The Audemars Piguet Story

There are certain watches that define a brand, informing its design ethos and becoming nothing short of iconic in the minds of collectors. For Audemars Piguet, that watch is the Royal Oak, in all its multitudinous incarnations. Yet the manufacture from Le Brassus did not earn its seat in the triumvirate of leading watch brands — the so-called Big Three — on the success of the Royal Oak alone.

In fact, both Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet came from long lines of watchmakers, and made their reputations long before the Royal Oak was conceived. Their reputations rested on their ability to create incredibly elegant timepieces in numerous styles. While some of these timepieces were simple, elegant dress watches, others were one-off or short-series pieces produced at the rate of a handful per year. (Some years, Audemars Piguet only produced a few hundred watches in total.) Calendar watches, chronographs, minute repeaters — all the delights of haute horlogerie were part and parcel of the AP oeuvre long before the Royal Oak made its debut in 1972.

Technical innovations from AP abound and include the first minute-repeating movement, the first skeleton watch and an ultra-thin automatic tourbillon. Newer collections, such as the Code 11.59 from 2019, see the maison continue to develop new and exciting watches and calibers, the likes of which aren’t based upon tired horological tropes from models past. (Though if vintage reissues are your bag, AP does have a special “Remaster” line — currently consisting of just one model — that reimagines some of its classical, complicated pieces from the mid-20th century.)