Dedicated to collectors and to the curious-minded, AP Chronicles results from years of research by the Audemars Piguet Heritage team and aims to become the reference source on the history of the Royal Oak collection from 1972 to the present day. Dealing with historical as well as technical and human aspects, it intends to document the exhaustive range of the Royal Oak models equipped with mechanical calibres.
The first part has been accessible since 2022, the year of the Royal Oak’s 50th anniversary, and covers the first 10 years of its history.
SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE
ROYAL OAK
The AP Chronicles project was born in 2019 as the Royal Oak’s 50th anniversary was approaching. The birth of the famous Royal Oak had been told a thousand and one times, orally or in the form of press articles, books or brochures. This abundance of information could give the illusion that everything had been said, and even repeated ad infinitum. However, on closer observation, it soon became apparent that the stories sometimes contradicted each other, that the sources were almost never cited and that beyond the few stories repeated with infinite modulations, countless questions remained unanswered.
