Audemars Piguet gave the women’s Royal Oak to a woman. In 1976 its head of product design, Jacqueline Dimier, cut the original to 29mm, kept the eight bezel screws, and made it in steel when women’s watches usually came in gold or platinum. In 2016 the Florentine jeweler Carolina Bucci reworked it as the Royal Oak Frosted Gold, with a hammered gold surface AP describes as a diamond-dust effect. Today AP sizes watches for wrists rather than for women or men. It calls the Code 11.59 gender-neutral and describes the 38mm version as designed for smaller wrists.
I can source any watch, new or used, even very hard-to-get. I chose these examples to guide you.
Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet · 38mm · Automatic · 26665SG.ZZ.D209CR.01Tap to see the back
About $168,000 at launch in 2025
AP puts a flying tourbillon in the Code 11.59 case, in its own sand gold, and sets 235 diamonds on the case middle, crown, and lugs.
Royal Oak · 38mm · Automatic · 26450CB.OO.1356CB.02Tap to see the back
About $96,000 at launch in 2026
Serena Williams, with whom AP has worked since 2014, designed this Royal Oak with the brand, and AP made 500. AP built the case and bracelet from white ceramic and the dial from pink mother-of-pearl, and added a pink rubber strap for sport.
Royal Oak · 37mm · Automatic · 15550BA.GG.1356BA.01
About $62,000 at launch in 2024
AP hammers the yellow gold case and bracelet to give them a frosted sparkle, around a smoked gold-toned dial. You can see the movement through the back, and it keeps going 60 hours on a full wind.
Royal Oak · 37mm · Automatic · 26660BC.ZZ.1356BC.01
About $271,000 at launch in 2024
AP first made this extra-thin flying tourbillon, RD#3, in steel in 2022. This is its first version in white gold, 8.1mm thick, with baguette diamonds on the bezel and at the hours.
Royal Oak · 38mm · Automatic · 26684OR.OO.1356OR.01
From about $136,000
This Royal Oak perpetual calendar shows the day, date, month, leap year, and moon. You set every display with the crown alone, with no correction tool.
Royal Oak · 37mm · Automatic · 15552BC.ZZ.1358BC.01
From about $280,000
AP covers the case, dial, and bracelet with 2,123 small diamonds, about 7.2 carats, and marks the hours with 13 baguette diamonds.
Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet founded the company in 1875 in Le Brassus, in Switzerland's Vallée de Joux. Their descendants still own it, so it remains one of the few large Swiss makers in family hands.
In 1892 it made the movement for the first minute-repeater wristwatch. Its Royal Oak, Gérald Genta's octagonal steel sports watch, went on sale in 1972 and remains the company's best-known model. In 1986 it made the first self-winding tourbillon wristwatch, which was also the thinnest tourbillon wristwatch at the time. Audemars Piguet also owns a minority stake in Richard Mille.