Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding 41mm 15500ST

The Origins

Launched in 1972 as the world’s first stainless steel luxury sports watch, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak has undergone an incredible transformation over the decades from zero to hero that has put it at the epicentre of the watchmaking boom that has gripped the last 6+ years. Designed by the enigmatic Gerald Genta, the Royal Oak’s origin story is born in the midst of the Quartz Crisis, when mechanical timepieces were experiencing a steep decline in demand due to the cheaper, more accurate and far-trendier Japanese quartz watches flooding the market. 

In response to this, Audemars Piguet decided to create a new category of watch. So their Managing Director at the time, Georges Golay, sought the assistance of Gerald Genta in 1970, one day before Baselworld, to create a sports watch “that had never been done before,” and Genta certainly delivered. With its unique design, exceptional craftsmanship, and incredibly high price point, the Royal Oak was aesthetically unlike other sports watches from the time, but more importantly, it was also far more expensive. 

As a result, the Royal Oak failed to have the immediate impact on the market that AP had intended. However, this began to change after the first 1000 examples were sold by the one-year mark, and by the mid-1970s, the Royal Oak had begun to sink its teeth into the cultural zeitgeist within watchmaking. This is perhaps most prevalent with the release of the Patek Philippe Nautilus in 1976, which signalled that the Royal Oak was truly ahead of the curve. 

In the decades following, the Royal Oak collection continued to expand and grow and today it has come to symbolise the exceptional power in creating unique watches that break from convention. Arguably one of the most sought-after collections across the entire industry, not only AP’s catalogue, the Royal Oak boasts one of the longest waiting lists in all of watchmaking as collectors seek to add a piece of watchmaking heritage to their collections.

Case and Dial

While the Royal Oak was originally offered as a 39mm watch, the ref. 15500ST was launched in 2019 as a updated version of the 41mm Royal Oak ref. 15400 that had been introduced in 2012 to expand upon the collection’s sizing and inject its design with a more contemporary flair. Seven years on, the ref. 15500ST maintained the ref. 15400ST’s exact 41mm case with its enlarged octagonal bezel, integrated bracelet and larger dial. 

In keeping with the larger footprint of its dial, the ref. 15500ST was given a “Grande Tapisserie” engraved hobnail pattern, which showcases Audemars Piguet’s exceptional craftsmanship across its variety of textures in exceptional detail, and like its predecessor, it lacks the “automatic” inscription that was one found on Royal Oak dials at 6 o’clock. 

The Movement

Perhaps the ref. 15500ST’s most significant addition to the Royal Oak line-up was its new in-house movement that modernised the Royal Oak collection in more ways than one. To begin, the cal. 4302 boasted an upgraded power reserve of 70 hours versus the 60 hours found in the ref. 15400ST, and secondly, that is with a faster beat rate of 4Hz instead of the cal. 3120’s 2.75Hz beat rate, thus ensuring greater accuracy. In addition to its better performance than the cal. 3120 that it replaced, the cal. 4302 also features a plethora of elaborate finishing techniques across its bridges, baseplate and skeletonised 22kt gold winding rotor that leverage AP’s exceptional craftsmanship in abundance.

 Is Bigger Better?

While the Royal Oak has had a 41mm variant as part of its collection since 2012, the 2019 launch of the ref. 15500 saw Audemars Piguet finally give this side of the Royal Oak family the love that it deserved, and it worked. Today, opinion is split about which size Royal Oak is the “full size” variant. Purists will say it is the 39mm variants that are inspired by the original “Jumbo” ref. 5402, while newer collectors will say it is the 41mm variants like the ref. 15500ST. No matter which side of the fence you fall on, it is hard to disagree that the ref. 15500ST is an outstanding example of how to make small updates to an iconic watch design without disrupting its flow or aesthetic harmony. 

 Market Performance

Offered across four different dial variants, the Royal Oak ref. 15500ST’s market performance, like every other Royal Oak, is dependent on the dial colour in question and its respective popularity, as some dials are more sought-after, thus boasting greater market values. Prior to its discontinuation in 2021, dial preference also translated into longer wait times. 

Beginning with the blue dial, the most popular variant, its current market value of $55k offers an impressive 86% premium over its MSRP of $29,637. In contrast, the silver dial variant, being the least popular of the four, comes in at $37k - a still rather impressive premium over its MSRP of 25%.

Like the majority of Royal Oak references, the grey and black dial variants sit somewhere in between the most popular and least popular colours, and also command very similar market values. The grey dial ref. 15500ST, for example, has a market value of $40110, a premium of 35% over its MSRP of $29,637, while the black dial variant boasts a market value of $39900, presenting a price premium of 35%.