It’s a testament to the greatness of Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak that the brand can continue to iterate on it time and time again without the model ever feeling stale. We’ve seen versions of the Gérald Genta-designed icon in stainless steel, ceramic, and yellow gold. It’s been augmented with simple date displays and wildly complex tourbillons. Everyone from Alyx’s Matthew Williams and John Mayer to Travis Scott and KAWS has remixed the sporty timepiece. And yet, we’re still out here hungry for more. The Royal Oak is relentless.
Today, with 2025 marking AP’s 150th anniversary, the brand has just unveiled its first big batch of releases for the year—and, to the surprise of literally no one, there are a bunch of enticing new Royal Oaks in the mix. Let’s dive in for a closer look.
The new Royal Oaks improve on its most prestigious function
The perpetual calendar—a function that can accurately track the day, date, and month until the year 2100—is one of the most technically challenging complications in watches. Audemars Piguet refers to it as the Quantieme Perpetuel, and it’s become a fixture on its Royal Oak. “It's not an overstatement that the Royal Oak QP has sparked a mass understanding and appreciation of perpetual calendars,” John Mayer, an AP collaborator, told GQ last year.
Now, AP has revamped its QP for its 150th anniversary. It might be hard to appreciate in photographs alone, but the watch’s function has dramatically improved. Typically, you need a small tool (they look sort of like small fountain pens) to set a perpetual calendar, which makes the whole ordeal quite a hassle. Now, wearers will be able to change every reading on the watch through its crown alone. For someone who doesn’t actually wear a QP, that might not sound like a big deal, but this is the type of stuff that drives collectors crazy (For proof, see Ben Clymer’s recent list of gripes at Hodinkee.)
The new functionality is available on three different watches, including two Royal Oaks. My favorite of the group is the 18-karat gold case with a dialed-down “sand” tone, but the stainless steel RO and white-gold Code 11.59 are excellent as well. For each reference, AP is also making a special edition—limited to just 150 pieces apiece—that features an extremely cool detail: On these variations, the logo is swapped out for a swooping cursive design inspired by type from AP’s historical documents. In a hobby obsessed with small typographical quirks, these are surefire future grails.
These weren’t the only new Royal Oaks previewed by Audemars Piguet today, either. The last is a special “150th anniversary” openworked edition of everyone’s favorite octagonal timepiece. The design of the skeletonized dial and the rich blue shade on the subdials and inner bezel are both borrowed from a pocket watch in AP’s museum.
The Code 11.59 is still a major priority for AP
AP debuted its more conventionally shaped (i.e. round) Code 11.59 in 2019, and the line has steadily amassed new models and fans in the half-decade-plus since. For 2025, the brand has lined up a few more heavy hitters, including one leveled up with the new QP function.
Perhaps the most impressive new version comes in at a very wearable 38 mm—while still managing to fit in a tourbillon at 6 o’clock. Previous iterations of the 38-mm Codes were limited to just a date function, so the tourbillon is a big level up. The playbook reminds me of the one Patek Philippe deployed with its Nautilus. Several years after that iconic watch’s debut, PP slimmed it down to 37.5 mm and started turning it out in premium materials. Now, AP is shrinking the Code while upping its prestige.
The other three new Codes largely play with colors. The stunner is the “Tuscany blue” dial—a deep and rich navy shade that will make James Cameron jealous while he develops the next Avatar. The last two are crafted in stainless steel and feature various shades of gray on the dial and bezel.
Ain’t no party like an AP party because an AP party always has the best ceramics
No brand has done more to boost ceramic’s reputation in watch circles than AP. The brand’s striking white and blue ceramic pieces are some of my favorite releases from any maker over the past couple of years. The material shows up again here on a pair of Royal Oak Offshores, the beefier alternative to the standard RO. The first is made in a classic hunter green, while the other comes in a more standard black. AP first released an all-black ceramic watch in 2011: a special-edition Royal Oak Offshore made in collaboration with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
