Who Dares Wins

Charting a different path is never a walk in the park and the rewards are all but guaranteed. But some do it anyway.

- Celine Yap

AUDEMARS PIGUET: MEET THE NEW KING

Last year was a watershed one for Audemars Piguet. This came mainly as a result of its launch of Code 11.59—a completely new watch built on the Le Brassus manufacture’s audacious contemporary identity rather than its 144-year history. Code 11.59 was a polarising timepiece to say the least. The complex case was unique enough but its dial (particularly for the standard time-only and chronograph models) was devoid of emotion, an element watch connoisseurs know to expect from all Audemars Piguet timepieces.

Except that Code 11.59 does actually represent the identity of Audemars Piguet. We just don’t know it yet. As with the story of the Royal Oak in 1972, and subsequently the Royal Oak Offshore in 1993, the watch wasn’t an instant hit. But as we can see today, both the Royal Oak and to a lesser extent the Offshore have become icons. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that Audemars Piguet was mocked and jeered for producing such an atrocity. Who would want a luxury sports watch? Who would want to wear a big watch with exposed screws? They laughed. But they stand corrected. For what was atrocious then is audacious today. And here lies the DNA of Audemars Piguet.

Code 11.59 is thus the third volume in this continuing story of how in order to break the rules you must first master them. It is inspired by the Royal Oak—hence the octagonal case middle—but it also commits to its own tradition. Its case, for instance, is one of the most complex ones being made today. Apart from the octagonal middle, it has a round extra-thin bezel and stylised open-worked arched lugs, not forgetting the double curved sapphire crystal specially conceived for the collection, providing a unique visual experience as it enhances features on the dial.