Introducing The Winners Of The Wristcheck x Audemars Piguet ‘Your Take On The Royal Oak’ Competition

A day before the 1971 Baselworld, Gérald Genta dreamt up the ultimate blueprint for a luxury sports watch. With its unusual octagonal bezel, exposed screws, integrated bracelet and impeccable finish, the Royal Oak shook up a flagging market and emerged as the most definitive sports watch ever. Over the last 50 years, this iconic collection has been enriched with nearly 500 iterations and some of the greatest horological innovations of all time — all while keeping its legendary case shape and unique style as true to the original design as possible.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Royal Oak, Wristcheck and Audemars Piguet launched a never-seen-before global design competition in October — a rare opportunity for people to present their own take on the Royal Oak. We received over 4000 amazing entries from nearly 30 countries for this month-long contest. Keeping in mind the spirit of the collection and the feasibility of the designs, we finally selected five winners instead of the planned three.

Chosen by François-Henry Bennahmias, CEO of Audemars Piguet, and Austen Chu, Founder & CEO of Wristcheck, here are our five incredibly talented winners, who will be soon heading to Le Brassus for a complete Audemars Piguet Le Brassus Experience. As announced by Mr Bennahmias, Audemars Piguet is studying each of the winning designs to produce them one day, depending on the feasibility.

Sunny Garcia

“When you think of a luxury watch, it’s always something shiny and sleek. I wanted to design a timepiece that looked aged and worn – not your usual glossy trinket. I felt only a manufacture like Audemars Piguet could make such a severe concept desirable and different from other luxury watches,” says London-based Sunny Garcia, who had never thought of designing a watch before he signed up for ‘Your Take On The Royal Oak’.

For his version of the Royal Oak, Garcia rewinded back to the time when Gerald Genta had just introduced this unconventional luxury sports watch in steel. “I began considering an alternate timeline where the Royal Oak design was just too avant garde for the period. A disheartened Gerald Genta gave up and threw his prototype into the ocean (as that’s where he drew his original inspiration from). Fast forward 50 years. This watch is found washed up on a beach somewhere. Aesthetically, what would it look like?” says Garcia.

To shape his concept into a compelling design, Garcia started researching terms like ‘beach metal’, ‘rusted metal’, ‘rusted art’ and 'rusted metal art’. Eventually, he went down a rabbit hole of images from the Burning Man festival. “I was struck by the vivid colors, especially at night, and wanted to include some of that influence in my design. I felt this would act as a counterweight, contrasting the overall visual aesthetic I was pursuing,” he explains. While the overall look and feel of Garcia’s version of the Royal Oak is raw and rugged, the lumed neon rainbow hour-markers and moon phase brighten up the dial in the most charming way. “It was important that although my design concept was quite severe, the finished visual still felt light, organic, and beautiful. I think I achieved this with the combination of the original idea and the bright visuals from Burning Man,” he says.

An advertising agency professional, Garcia works in a fast paced environment where no two days are the same. He helps his clients with creative ideas to grow and develop a range of products and services. “The work I produce typically lasts only a couple of weeks or a few months at the most and is visually quite disposable, so I’m excited to be involved in the creation of a physical object that is built to last,” he says. 

Garcia’s favorite design icons include artists like Ralph Steadman, Grayson Perry, Shephard Fairey and David LaChapelle. “I love the refinement of Peter Saville, the chaos of David Carson, and the power of Sebastião Salgado. When it comes to watches, I’d say I’m a huge fan of the stainless steel openworked Royal Oaks, I think they are unparalleled. For me, they perfectly marry the original spirit of Genta’s design with the exceptional quality and attention to detail of Audemars Piguet in the 21st century,” he says.

Looking forward to his visit to the AP manufacture in Le Brassus, Garcia is keen on discovering the brand’s creative process. “I really enjoy hearing stories along the lines of ‘this was my grandfather's watch, he wore it every day’. I have visions of my future generations holding and appreciating the watch I designed long after I am gone. It would be nice to be a very small footnote in the history of an extremely prestigious company,” he says.

Michael Elko Weaver

A self-proclaimed space nerd, Michael Elko Weaver recaptured his favorite celestial sight – a deep blue starry sky with a gorgeous moon in gold – for his version of the Royal Oak. He has never had any professional training in design but sketching watches has been his guilty pleasure for a few years now.

“It’s something I didn’t share with anyone until this contest. It all started with altering designs of some of my favorite watch models in photoshop late at night when I couldn’t sleep. I had actually finished designing the one I submitted but then I woke up in the middle of the night thinking “there’s something missing!” It was the gold accent! There’s a precise moment when something you’ve made clicks and that was it for me. 4am on a Tuesday,” says Weaver, who was quite sure about having the ‘moon’ as the centerpiece in his version of the Royal Oak. “For me, the Harvest Moon is the most beautiful of all celestial phenomena. An aventurine dial always reminds me of the nights spent lying down and looking up at the sky, falling in love with our beautiful spot in the universe. To look at a watch and be reminded of those memories is something that makes me smile. Hopefully I can make that happen for others,” he says.

A multi-talented photographer by profession, Weaver went to a film school in Los Angeles and has designed movie posters, worked in production houses and also acted in theater and films. Although he has not had a direct link with the watch industry in recent years, the love for horology runs in his family. “My grandfather was a jeweler his whole life and he often sold luxury watches. At one point, he decided to flex his skills and started making 18k gold watches in his workshop. He bought Omega models of the day, took out the automatic movements and placed them in his creations, which were deliciously 1970s – fitted with solid gold Mexican peso coins on dials and casebacks. A few years ago, I mentioned how I was getting interested in watchmaking and my grandfather gifted me a prototype he had created out of sterling silver. He admits the piece wasn’t not perfect enough to sell but I’ll cherish it forever.”

A big admirer of the Royal Oak Jumbo 16202, Wearer believes AP has introduced absolutely brilliant calibers in the last few years. “This year when AP announced the new caliber 7121, I was floored. The design and proportions of the Jumbo were already perfect—and now the engine too is thoroughly modern and impressively robust (and still so thin!) Like all watch fanatics there are MANY timepieces I would love to own but the Jumbo is cemented at the top of my list. If I had one, I’d never take it off,” he says. 

The Wristcheck x Audemars Piguet design competition has made Wearer more confident of his designing skills. Given a chance, he’d love to work as a designer or an advertising photographer with a luxury watch brand in the near future. “When I first got the email saying I had been selected as one of the winners, I genuinely thought it was fake! It took a few re-reads for it to sink in. My only goal was to design something I’d love to wear out for special occasions, and that would potentially fit into AP’s standard model range. Limited editions are of course awesome but I was hoping to make something that could be available for years. The other four winners seriously impressed me. They are truly awesome designs. I’m very lucky to be in their company!”

Sidoine Lescauville

For as long as he can remember, Sidoine Lescauville has had a deep interest in watchmaking. The 20-year-old industrial design student caught the watch bug quite early in his childhood and has been nurturing this dream to work with a watch brand someday. “Every time I saw a watch in a store, I wanted it on my wrist. Even though I never really wore watches, I would beg my parents to buy me one. The day I was given my great grandfather's Omega chronograph, I knew I wanted to start collecting. But collecting wasn’t even my main goal, my goal is to work in the watch industry,” he says.

Inspired by the works of Phillipe Starck, Virgil Abloh and Hajime Sorayama, Lescauville wants to make watches that people would wear everyday and not hide away in lockers. For our global design competition, he presented the ‘Royal Oak Sunbather’ – an all-white timepiece with a dynamic dial that would change color throughout the day. “I wanted to design an AP meant to be worn and not stored away. I asked myself a couple of questions. Can I make an AP people would want to wear under the light and not in a dark room for a movie premiere? Can I make an AP that will captivate everyone’s attention not only for being an AP?” he says.

After a good day of brainstorming, Lescauville made six different designs for the competition including the winning design of the ‘Sunbather’. “This watch will be all white inside a room but as soon as it catches light – UV rays to be precise – the dial will light up with multiple colors and come to life. I love ceramic watches, which is why I chose it as the main material for my design. I wanted the dial to be the center of attention, so I chose to only put a date complication there,” says Lescauville, who personally loves all the perpetual calendar watches from Audemars Piguet.

While submitting his designs, Lescauville believed they were good enough to win but as he started going through all the ‘crazy designs’ submitted by other participants, he wasn’t as sure of making the cut. “I just wanted it so badly! I’m really happy and thankful for this win. This means so much more to me than you might think! This is my passport to the watch industry. I can’t wait to meet all the people at Audemars Piguet and learn as much as possible about my dream job,” he says.

Over the next five years, Lescauville hopes the watchmaking industry will be more sustainable and innovative with design. “I hope to see established watch brands create new designs and silhouettes to keep up with the new school of watchmakers. I also wish to see upcoming brands introducing ingenious designs and fresh marketing strategies,” he says.

Sam Amis

‘How sustainable is your watch?’

That’s one question haunting most luxury watchmakers these days and Sam Amis, a passionate eco-warrior, wanted to address the same through his take on the Royal Oak. “My inspiration came directly from what matters most to myself, my family and the future of our planet – materials that are sustainable, environmentally conscious and beautiful all at once,” he says. “The use of plastic has proliferated too far in many instances, and when I came across what Smile Plastics is doing out of the UK, I knew I had to apply this amazing material to my concept. They use sustainable materials made from “waste” plastics collected from a variety of post-consumer and post-industrial sources. The Royal Oak is an icon all on its own, so applying an amazing material to that icon seemed only fitting.”

An industrial designer by trade, Amis graduated from The University of Cincinnati design program (DAAP) and has been working on a lot of different products but not purely watches. When not designing for work, he is constantly thinking about materials, brands or products that he can dream up and build. “I was always intrigued by watches but I didn’t know one could go somewhere and design just those,” he says. “My interest started way back with my first Flik Flak in elementary school that I obsessed over, on to my Swatch / Ironman phase in high school, then to my deep fascination with Nike’s short but amazing watch design era, and finally to where I’m now with my love of luxury, independent and micro watch brands. The latter stage started with a deep love of space travel, eventually leading to the purchase of my first luxury watch, the Omega Speedmaster when my first son was born.”

A massive fan of heirloom analog products, Amis loves digging deep into brand histories and design stories, especially those that evolve well over time without ever disconnecting from their origins. “My favorite design icon is the Swiss Army Knife. Designed for pure function and perfected over 125 years, how can anyone beat something that’s so well executed at mass scale and is still so popular and widely respected?!” he says.

Although Amis has been to ‘all kinds of factories’, he has never been to a watch manufacture and he can’t wait to be in Le Brassus to discover Audemars Piguet’s watchmaking atelier. “ I don't know everything about AP but I do know a few things and I definitely want to dive more into their history and explore the town where it all started,” he says. “I hope this win allows me to work with and alongside some of the world's best brands that are as relevant today as they were decades ago.”

Yinglin Liu

Inspired by bridges and buildings, Yinglin Liu’s version of the Royal Oak is a light-weight, 41 mm ‘endoskeleton’ model endowed with skeleton hour-markers and hands. The skeletonized Grand Tapisserie dial has no date window or aperture – the see-through design is meant to give a tantalizing peek into the movement underneath. “I heard of this competition through a friend and participated because I thought it was very interesting. I worked on the design during my spare time but it was not perfect, so I was very surprised to learn that I was actually selected as one of the winners. I’m honored to have been a part of this great initiative,” says Liu, who is an industrial designer, specializing in watches.

Liu was very sure he didn’t want to meddle with the form of the Royal Oak but the design had to be distinctive in some way. So he went with an openworked style for the entire watch, including the movement and strap. “This was one way of turning a "solid" watch into a "linear" watch. It has a strong sense of technology and is visually impactful, as it is made with very little material. It’s also supposed to be ultra-light and very comfortable to wear,” says Liu, whose favorite AP is the Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon GMT.

Over the next few years, Liu hopes to see a lot more diversification in high-end watchmaking where it won’t be just a few models from certain brands that would be most sought-after. “A large number of excellent watch models will get "niche". Also, brands in the top league could use their position in the market to strengthen and popularize watch culture, so that more people can get interested in watches.”