Vanity Fair UK - 10.2019

When it comes to luxury stainless

steel sports watches, there is no

question that the two which were

the first of their kind—the

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and

the Patek Philippe Nautilus—

defined the genre and continue to

do so today. Remarkably, at their

launch, both watches were

considered enormous—perhaps

even fatal—risks for both

companies. Both watches, in their

original material—stainless

steel—and original design, have

now become so extraordinarily

difficult to find that to have one on

your wrist has become the badge

of a real horological insider

By JACK FORSTER

YEAR INTRODUCED

ROYAL OAK, 1972; NAUTILUS, 1976.

Audemars Piguet toyed with various

possible names for the watch , but settled

on “Royal Oak”—the nickname of the tree

in which the future King Charles II hid

following the Battle of Worcester, and of

eight Royal Navy warships.

ORIGINAL MOVEMENTS

At launch, the Royal Oak used the

CALIBRE 2121 (below),

based on the Jaeger-LeCoultre

920—the thinnest full rotor

self-winding movement in existence at

the time—originally deployed by

Audemars Piguet as the Calibre 2120.

The first Nautilus model, Reference

3700/1, was launched with the

CALIBRE 28-255C (above).

CURRENT MOVEMENTS

The current stainless steel Patek Philippe Nautilus

Reference 5711/1A uses the self-winding, in-house

CALIBRE 26-330 SC—a very traditionally crafted

movement, with the modern touch of a silicon balance

spring. The Royal Oak “Jumbo” model uses the

CALIBRE 2121—the exact same movement as in the

AUDEMA RS PIGUETvery first Royal Oak in 1972.

Royal Oak

AP ARCHIVE (ROYAL OAK ADVERT); COURTESY OF THE ADVERTISING ARCHIVES (NAUTILUS ADVERT)

52 VANITY FAIR ON TIME AUTUMN^2019