For Its 150th Anniversary, Hip-Hop's Favorite AP Is Evolving
Kicking off what's bound to be a splashy birthday celebration, Audemars Piguet dropped a fresh lineup of watches for its 150th anniversary. The highlight? A new series of Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars featuring never-before-seen movements, plus an Openworked Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar "150th Anniversary" edition, the swan song for one of AP's most legendary movements.
Building on that legacy, AP's latest Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars introduce the new Calibre 7138 movement, housed in either sand gold or stainless steel.
The standout upgrade? Usability. Anyone who's ever set a perpetual calendar knows the struggle—multiple pushers, fiddly correctors, and the constant fear of messing up the mechanism.
With the new 41mm Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, AP ditches traditional correctors, making all calendar adjustments (day, date, month, leap year, moon phase) accessible via a single four-position crown. It's a first for AP and a major development for QP functionality.
The tech may be new, but the visual language of these steel and gold Royal Oaks stick to AP's signature codes of integrated bracelets, Tapisserie dials packed with complications, and a moon phase disc pulled straight from NASA's archives.
Referred to as quantième perpétuel (QP for short), the perpetual calendar is one of the most revered complications in watchmaking. Capable of tracking the day, date, month, leap year, and even moon phases — all without manual correction — QP watches are often considered by collectors to represent the pinnacle of watchmaking.
In other words, it's an "endgame" piece for anyone looking to build a "respectable" collection.
And the price reflects that prestige: An AP Perpetual Calendar will set you back at least five to six figures, with prices often climbing toward a quarter-million or more depending on materials and additional complications.
Though other Holy Trinity brands like Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin offer their own QPs, high-profile co-signs have made AP's perpetual calendars the gold standard.
Specifically, AP's celestial watches have become a symbol of hip-hop wealth. From Stormzy and Dave to Gunna and Travis Scott, who even collaborated on his own AP Perpetual Calendar, AP remains the flex when you've got a few hundred thousand to blow.
Nonetheless, if there's one thing rarer than a perpetual calendar, it's an openworked perpetual calendar.
For those who like their haute horology with a side of transparency, AP is also releasing the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked "150th Anniversary," marking the final chapter of its Calibre 5135 movement.
These skeletonized watches, inspired by a historical openworked QP pocket watch housed in the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet archives, allow wearers to peer directly into the heart of the movement.
It's a style that, again, has made its way onto the wrists of hip-hop household names like Jay-Z and Pusha T.
But even Stormzy will have to move fast: AP will only make 150 of these celebratory timepieces.
