Audemars Piguet

A FEAT OF MECHANICS Calibre 2120 was born in 1967 in the Jura Mountains from the collaboration of LeCoultre & Cie, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin. This mechanism powered the first high-end sports watch by Audemars Piguet, a 100-year-old manufacturer, a few years later.

THE FIRST SKETCH Audemars Piguet's then-Managing Director, Georges Golay, called Gérald Genta on April 11, 1970, at 4 p.m. and asked him to design "an unprecedented steel watch" for the next morning. The designer recalled a childhood memory that inspired him to create these protective headpieces: seeing divers prepare to plunge into the Rhône, their lives dependent on the watertightness of their helmets.

PATENTED INNOVATION An octagonal bezel with eight hexagonal screws through the steel casing and eight nuts squeezing a huge gasket is ridiculous! Casemakers doubted the watch's viability. Gold, a more malleable substance than steel, was requested for practise.

FOR WOMEN Absolutely radical! Jacquline Dimier designed the first Royal Oak for women. The proportions were rethought, but its core codes—straight lines, steel case, integrated bracelet, Tapisserie dial, hand finishes, and selfwinding movement—remained.

BETWEEN EARTH MOON AND SKY The Royal Oak's Calibre 2120/2800 perpetual calendar movement met two legends in 1984. A groundbreaking system that revived problems following the quartz crisis. A futuristic octagonal watch promises many surprises.

DEFYING GRAVITY The Le Brassus watchmakers added a tourbillon to the Royal Oak's 25th anniversary watch to honour the complication's revival. They built the 80 gravity-defying components at their workbenches.