When it comes to luxury watches, Audemars Piguet is up there with the best ultra high-end timepieces. The brand is also well versed in connecting with pop culture concepts, especially with its ultra-high-end Royal Oak Concept platform. There have been a few notable collaborations in recent years, namely the Marvel-themed tie-ins gracing the dials of Concept Tourbillons. This time, Audemars Piguet teams up with the Brooklyn-based artist Kaws for a brand new take on the Concept Tourbillon with the artist’s iconic character design.
Kaws, whose real name is Brian Donnelly, shot to fame in the late ’90s with his graffiti interventionism in New York, eventually exploding into the contemporary Pop art scene with his toy creations that stemmed from his street art aesthetics. Most famous is Kaws’ “Companion” character, a skull and crossbones take on a famous rubber-hose cartoon mouse that might feel familiar to certain eyes as it’s visible in many forms – from vinyl toys to numerous apparel collaborations with brands like Nike and Uniqlo, amongst others.
This week, Audemars Piguet brings the Companion figure into the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon, featuring the iconic skull-shaped head, gloves, and of course X-shaped eyes. This version sees the Companion appearing to peek from behind the sapphire crystal, with the gloves and face of the Companion sculpted to make the figure look like it’s pressed against the glass. This figure is constructed entirely out of brushed and sandblasted titanium, sitting on top of a sunburst-brushed titanium dial plate with its chest revealing the tourbillon cage itself. The X-shaped eyes of the skull are filled with grey lacquer.
For this version, Audemars Piguet introduces a new peripheral time display, which features titanium hour and minute hands set on roller-guided gear wheels. The inner titanium inner bezel features five-minute markings, and both the markings and the hands are lumed. Driving the new peripheral time display is a new hand-wound movement, Calibre 2979, with a 60-second tourbillon that beats away at 3Hz. The bridges of the movement are coated in a black PVD treatment, and as another nod to the artist, the ratchet wheel of the calibre has been skeletonised in another Kaws X motif. The Audemars Piguet logo and other text are laser engraved and filled with white lacquer for contrast.
While similar in silhouette, the case of this Concept Tourbillon is slightly larger than the 42mm Spiderman and Black Panther Concept Tourbillons, coming in at 43mm. Just like other 43mm Royal Oak Concept models, the case features some additional angular inserts that give the already multifaceted titanium case even more contrasting finishes. The crown is in black ceramic, and the caseback features Kaws’ signature and the words “Limited Edition of 250 pieces.” Holding all the pieces of the case together are eight hexagonal “screws,” marked of course with the trademark Kaws “X.”
The watch comes with both a dark grey calfskin leather strap and a slate grey calfskin strap, both embossed with a textile pattern. You’ll be right in thinking this is a limited edition concept, with just 250 pieces. The timepiece will retail at around £178,000 (200,000 CHF).
