18 kt Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Automatic, Ref 14790 BA

For vintage watch collectors everywhere, Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak is a stylish, widely coveted status symbol. It features the incorporation of an unconventional material that would one day prove revolutionary to watchmaking, and for celebrated Swiss designer Gérald Genta (1931–2011), it is perhaps his best-known work. Incredibly, its story begins with a simple inspiration: the humble screw.

First introduced in 1972, the Royal Oak wristwatch featured a now-legendary design that Genta borrowed from antique diving helmets. More hardware than garment, these helmets were crafted in brass and attached to a diving suit with large screws. Genta translated the motif from the rim of the diving helmet to Audemars Piguet’s newest timepiece, setting eight miniature screws into an octagonal bezel, which surrounded a textured “tapisserie,” or tapestry, dial. Following its launch at what would become the Baselworld watch and jewelry fair, Audemars Piguet aptly touted a “bezel locked dramatically to its face, tightly as a porthole.”

In addition to its unique bezel design, the Royal Oak — named for a group of vessels in Britain’s Royal Navy, according to legend — was also unorthodox for its material. Though stainless steel is a ubiquitous option on watches today, in the early 1970s its use was visionary. The Royal Oak was the first luxury sports timepiece to be made from the durable material — a perfect choice for blending the form and function that are now synonymous with sports watches.

Stainless steel also allowed for a more integrated connection between case and band, paving the way for the seamless bracelet-style bands that have since been adopted by nearly every watchmaker. The knit-like design of the Royal Oak’s band is echoed by the original model's trademark tapisserie dial, a guilloché backdrop achieved by a precise engraving process. The textural element, paired with the Royal Oak’s sturdy steel and delicate yet industrial screws, gives the timepiece a unique combination of elegance and weight.

Arguably the most prolific freelance watch designer in history, Genta designed timepieces for Omega, Patek Philippe, Cartier and Bulgari, to name a few, but the Royal Oak remains one of his most influential. Since the debut of the original, Audemars Piguet has continued to issue new collections of the style, including men’s and women’s versions in yellow and pink gold, models encircled with diamonds and many more.

The story of celebrated family-owned manufacturer Audemars Piguet and its universally acclaimed, widely coveted luxury watches begins deep in the Jura Mountains in western Switzerland.

The Vallée de Joux has been a haven of watchmaking since the late 18th century, when the residents of farming communities began creating timepieces during the winter months.

Jules Louis Audemars (1851–1918) and Edward Auguste Piguet (1853–1919), both natives of the region, were already deeply entrenched in the world of watchmaking when they joined forces to form a new house of horology near the end of the 19th century, an alliance that would be the start of a multigenerational family company. With complementary specialties within the field, Audemars and Piguet made the perfect pair in 1875: Audemars, the more technically minded of the two, oversaw production, while Piguet specialized in quality control and led the business and marketing parts of the outfit.

Audemars Piguet’s first major milestone came in 1892, when it created the world’s first minute-repeating movement for a wristwatch. (It was sold to Omega, whose origins date to 1848.) That was soon followed in 1899 with the Universelle pocket watch, a masterpiece of horology that boasted a perpetual calendar, minute repeater, alarm and chronograph with jumping seconds. It is still said to be the most complicated timepiece that Audemars Piguet has ever designed.

Between 1918 and 1919, both founders of Audemars Piguet had died and were replaced by their respective sons, incidentally both named Paul. Under the leadership of ​​Paul Louis Audemars and Paul Edward Piguet, the watchmaker continued to innovate. It retained an ever-evolving technical focus and found new praise for its efforts, producing the world’s thinnest pocket-watch caliber in 1925, the first skeletonized pocket watch in 1934 and the world’s thinnest wristwatch in 1946.

When the quartz crisis of the 1970s left many watchmakers in the lurch, Audemars and Piguet found a creative solution, tapping the Geneva-born Gérald Genta to conceive the first-ever luxury watch in stainless steel. Launched at what would become the Baselworld watch and jewelry fair in 1972, the Royal Oak, with its octagonal face and integrated bracelet, would come to define the look of Audemars Piguet and revolutionize the luxury wristwatch industry, setting a standard that continues to this day.

Find a collection of vintage Audemars Piguet wristwatches and pocket watches on 1stDibs.