Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 37mm Rhodium 50th Anniversary 15550ST 2022

Reference 15550ST.OO.1356ST.03 is the Royal Oak at 37 mm, the size that sits between the 34 and the 41 and gets talked about least. It is also the closest of the current steel Royal Oaks to the proportions Gerald Genta actually drew.

The original was 39 mm in 1972, at a point when 36 was considered a large watch — the Royal Oak was meant to look oversized, and that was most of the provocation. Four decades of case inflation later the 41 is the default and the 39 has become the collector's Jumbo. The 37 is the one that reads correctly on an ordinary wrist, because an integrated case has no lugs to overhang: the whole watch is case, and thirty-seven millimetres of unbroken octagon covers as much ground as a forty-millimetre watch with ends on it.

This is from the fiftieth anniversary year, which here is not a sticker on the box. Audemars Piguet used 2022 to introduce a new generation of movement across the collection, and gave every anniversary piece an oscillating weight openworked into the numerals 50, in rhodium-toned pink gold. It turns behind the sapphire back, and it was fitted for that one year only.

The dial is the grey Grande Tapisserie. The movement is the selfwinding Calibre 5900, twenty-nine jewels by the count engraved on the bridge, in a 37 mm stainless steel case on the integrated bracelet.

Mint, 2022, offered as a full set with the anniversary certificate. A second hand watch, and the anniversary year is not coming back.

Every watch is authenticated by an independent watchmaker before it changes hands, never by us. Viewing by appointment at our Collins Street boutique in Melbourne, insured delivery Australia-wide. We buy Audemars Piguet outright and source specific references on request.