Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph Selfwinding ‘50th Anniversary’ 26240ST

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. 

While its time and date-only configuration is perhaps its most classical, the Royal Oak has included a chronograph variant since the late 1990s, following the launch of the Royal Oak Offshore, a chronograph-boasting Royal Oak-inspired collection from 1993. Since then, the Royal Oak Chronograph has epitomised the sporty essence of the Royal Oak’s original inspiration, and today includes a plethora of incredible references just like the ref. 26240ST, which was added to the Royal Oak Chronograph family in 2022 as part of the Royal Oak’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.

The Case and Dial

In keeping with the ref. 26240ST’s position as a one of the 50th Anniversary references, it features a slightly updated case and dial that fit within the Royal Oak collection’s modernised aesthetic. As part of these updates, the ref. 26240ST’s indices and hands are a new size, and it includes the Royal Oak’s new appliqué logo design, whereby each letter is essentially 3D printed using galvanic growth. Besides those small changes, the ref. 26240ST also boasts a centred date aperture between the 4 and 5 o’clock hour markers, something previous 41mm Royal Oak Chronograph models did not feature. 

Besides its “Grande Tapisserie” dial, the ref. 26240ST’s case is also updated slightly, thanks to its new cal. 4401 movement, which debuted in the Code 11.59. This change means that the ref. 26240ST’s case comes in at a thickness of 12.4mm – an increase of 1.4mm over its predecessor, the ref. 26331ST.

The Movement

Introduced in the Code 11.59 collection in 2021, the automatic cal. 4401, AP’s first ever in-house fully integrated chronograph movement, was finally added to the Royal Oak Chronograph collection with the ref. 26240ST in what has been the largest mechanical overhaul of the Royal Oak Chronograph collection since its debut in 1998. With this new movement, the ref. 26240ST boasts a power reserve of 70 hours at a beat rate of 4Hz, putting its larger size than the outgoing cal. 2385 to very good use, allowing the Royal Oak Chronograph to stand up to the performance of its equally high-end competitors. As one would expect, the cal. 4401 is also exceptionally well-finished, just like the rest of the ref. 26240ST. 

50th Anniversary Edition

Launched in 2022 as part of the Royal Oak’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, the ref. 26240ST ‘50th Anniversary’ features one subtle detail that is only present on examples sold in 2022, a commemorative winding rotor bearing the “50 Years” detailing. Marking these specific examples as members of the ‘50th Anniversary’ sub-reference, these commemorative winding rotors separate Royal Oak aficionados from more casual collectors. 

Market Performance

As a complicated variant within the Royal Oak family, the ref. 26240ST is harder to find on the secondary market than their time and date-only siblings. This, combined with the ref. 26240ST’s greater retail price does mean it has a higher market value, and an arguably higher ceiling during a bull market, than time and date-only variants, but it does not offer as good a price premium. On the ref. 26240ST’s $39,627 retail price, the blue dial variant offers the greatest premium at 57% - indicating a market value of $62500. 

The silver and black dial variants, on the other hand, offer premiums of 42% and 30%, respectively, which translate to market values of $56300 and $51500. Interestingly, the silver dial variant has a greater market value than the black dial variant, which contrasts what we would find in other Royal Oak models, whereby black and grey dials usually command higher market values than their silver or white siblings. The explanation for this might be due to the shorter supply of silver dials on the market. 

Check the live performance of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph Selfwinding ‘50th Anniversary’ 26240ST at The Wristcheck Index