Audemars Piguet Launched a New Line of Watches. This Is the Best One

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Most luxury watch brands have certain signatures, like the Omega Speedmaster or Rolex Submariner, that serve as aesthetic entry points for collectors. The icon from Audemars Piguet is the octagonal Royal Oak, designed by Gérald Genta and introduced in 1972 as a defiant riposte to a swelling tide of quartz watches. Hoping lightning strikes twice, the brand’s Chief Executive Officer François-Henry Bennahmias led half a decade’s development on Code 11.59, a range of timepieces named after the minute before the clock strikes 12.

The Competition

• Also making a splash this year is IWC Schaffhausen’s Spitfire collection, the backbone of which is the $6,250 Pilot’s Watch Chronograph in bronze.

• Breitling’s new Navitimer Ref. 806 1959 Re-Edition has a vintage feel, with a beaded bezel and small second, 30-minute, and 12-hour counters crammed within a busy tachymeter. In steel, it runs $8,600.

• If you’re looking for something wilder, Montblanc’s Heritage Spirit Pulsograph ($31,800) has a salmon dial and a monopusher movement by Swiss manufacturer Minerva.

The Case

The 11.59’s broad dials end at a sliver of bezel, and cases come in a range of precious metals. (This one is rose gold.) The crystal is curved two ways, making for excellent legibility on its face and a distinctive hall-of-mirrors effect at an angle. All the collection’s watches are a gender-neutral 41mm, and for the chronograph, the brand made its first in-house integrated self-winding flyback movement. The Code 11.59 siblings will be central to the AP family for years to come, so a piece from the debut year will be an undisputed collector’s item. $42,400

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Gaddy at jgaddy@bloomberg.net

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