The Royal Oak, today the most famous and most requested Audemars Piguet watch, was born at a time of great difficulty for the company. We are in the Seventies, and the Quartz Crisis is seriously affecting Swiss watchmaking. Even the most prestigious houses, such as the bicentennial Audemars Piguet, are in trouble. The top management of Le Brassus then relied on the genius of Gerald Genta, the greatest of watch designers.

The decision to stake everything on a luxury steel watch, an apparent contradiction for the time, was not far-fetched. The Italian importer of Audemars Piguet assures the Swiss management that in Italy there is a market for a luxury sports watch that can be worn in all conditions. The Italian one was, at the time, the largest watch market in the world, second only to the United States: this is why Audemars Piguet attempted the gamble of repositioning itself completely on the luxury market with the Royal Oak.

The Royal Oak by Audemars Piguet is a watch that combines a "poor" material such as steel with a refined workmanship, made up of alternating polished and satin finishes, previously reserved only for noble metals. Carrying out these finishing touches on a hard material such as stainless steel is not easy, and in this lies the value of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and of Gerald Genta's other great creation, the Patek Philippe Nautilus.

The Royal Oak was presented by Audemars Piguet in 1972. Its shapes, inspired by a diving suit, with hexagonal screws tightening an octagonal bezel on an angular case, are a complete break with the past. Even the integrated steel bracelet is something very innovative, and goes well with the elegance of the dial's standard tapis manufacturing. After the initial mistrust, the Royal Oak is not only appreciated, but becomes the most important model for Audemars Piguet, the one thanks to which the Le Brassus company manages to overcome the crisis.

Today, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is a watch much appreciated by enthusiasts and collectors, both for its aesthetics and for its ability to be an investment that retains its value over time: the prices of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak are not never been so high. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was offered in numerous materials, from rose gold to yellow gold, with dials of every color, from blue to green through black, in "Jumbo" versions for men and "Lady" for women , with diamonds and complications. In short, there is a Royal Oak for all tastes!