GMK001 “The Aberrant” wears a 41mm black ceramic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak

The Monégasque car and watch phantom, GMK001 “The Aberrant,” wears a 41mm black ceramic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar with a grey dial featuring a “Grande Tapisserie” pattern.

About The Timepiece

The Perpetual Calendar is deeply ingrained in Audemars Piguet’s history. It serves as a timely reflection that astronomical and naturally occurring phases are the source of all-time measures.

In 1955, Audemars Piguet unveiled a perpetual calendar timepiece with the crucial leap year indicator. Only nine of these watches were produced, and they were all fashioned of 18 karats yellow gold. Since that time, Audemars Piguet has introduced numerous other perpetual calendar timepieces. 

The most recent is the 2016 Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar which combines yellow gold, the famous Gérald Genta layout, and the most classic watchmaker complexity. Today, Audemars Piguet has added a fully black edition of its Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar series, constructed of hand-finished black ceramic.

Five 41mm variations of the Royal Oak featuring a perpetual calendar are currently available in steel or various gold accents. This Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Black Ceramic is the initial matte black variant with a polished ceramic casing and band.

According to the AP, a steel bracelet may be machined, polished, hand-finished, and assembled in roughly six hours. The identical procedure for a ceramic bracelet requires approximately thirty hours to complete. In simple words, polishing ceramic requires significantly more work, unlike cleaning steel (or gold). In the end, the casing and bracelet have a silky, flawless feel yet are almost impervious to scratching, resistant to extreme heat, “aging,” and perhaps even heat shocks. Because of this, ceramic is becoming increasingly well-liked nowadays.

The timepiece is powered by the mechanical Audemars Piguet caliber 5134, which has a power reserve of 40 hours. It has a perpetual calendar featuring leap year, astronomy moon, day, and week indications. Given the majority of contemporary perpetual calendars, the precision of the moon phase astronomy marker only needs modification after 125 years and 317 days. 

The piece’s monotonous appearance is maintained by the slate grey dial, which is made in the traditional Grande Tapisserie design we typically find on Royal Oaks. With all the detail displayed, it is challenging to harmonize the dial arrangement, yet AP did it flawlessly. The date is at 3 o’clock, the moonphase and “Audemars Piguet” emblem are at 6 o’clock, the month and leap year indication are at 12 o’clock, while the day of the week is at 9 o’clock. On the other hand, the regular hours, as well as minutes, are located in the middle. The third central index, nevertheless, designates the week of the calendar year rather than moving seconds by pointing to even numerals 2-52 on the external borders.

In addition, the slate grey dial clashes beautifully with the white golden attached hourly markings and Royal Oak markers with luminous treatment. Another wonderful combination with the dial is provided by the dark blue moon phase at 6 o’clock, which features a photorealistic depiction of the moon.

This extremely popular model, today discontinued, had a market price of $270,000.00 last time we posted it, which was in October 2021. Now it’s $400,000.00 USD…

Ref: 26579CE.OO.1225CE.01

Photo: Georges Maroun Kikano