The Royal Oak requires almost no introduction. Launched in 1972 it was the first luxury stainless steel sports watch, as designed by Gerald Genta, that ushered in the modern age of horology that we are still in now. Originally a response to the Quartz Crisis, its complicated construction and mechanical movement meant that it flew in the face of how other Swiss watchmakers were tackling the problem brought about by the onslaught of cheap quartz-powered Japanese watches. Instead of joining their counterparts by making their own Quartz watches en masse, AP dared to do something different, and so they created what is arguably one of watchmaking’s biggest icons. By 1996 Patek Philippe had invented and introduced the world’s first annual calendar timepiece which retained an accurate grasp of the days, date and month of a given year while also coming in at a more accessible price point than the revered perpetual calendar. Seeing the potential in the complication, AP added the annual calendar function to the Royal Oak collection in the form of the watch we have here, the ref. 25920BA. Launched in 1999 and produced for a short handful of years, it is one of the few annual calendar timepieces that AP has made. Housed in their mid-size Royal Oaks, the ref. 25920BA is a 36mm Royal Oak variant and boasts an 18kt yellow gold case. powered by the ultra-thin AP cal. 2225/2814, which is derived from Jaeger-LeCoultre’s JLC 889 calibre movement, the ref. 25920BA stands at an impressive 8mm thin, which allows its sporty frame to still fit on the wrist with the same sense of utility that the Royal Oak was originally conceived with, but with the added heft of gold. Boasting a stunning black dial with Grande Tappisserie, the ref. 25920BA’s dial is notable due to its red pointer date hand and roulette wheel month subdial that add a burst of color to this incredibly unique Royal Oak. Rumoured to have only produced less than 200 examples before its discontinuation, the ref. 25920BA is a wonderfully unique piece of the Royal Oak’s heritage and not one that see very often.

Combining sports watch design with a complicated movement that provides practical utility, the ref. 25920BA is a timepiece that has everything one could want from a neo-vintage Royal Oak variant.