Audemars Piguet

Dear PuristPro's

Came across this watch in a shop but they have no paper.  Who can help with providing info on this AP watch right at the front?  An old yellow gold auto watch with date, sapphire cyrstal.

Thanks and regards

The same case design also housed the first AP "Automatic Chronograph."

I personally liked it alot and it was a huge (for the time) case size - AP was "ahead of the pack" even back then.

Feel free to ask for more specific information.

TM

Thanks.  You are right, very sizeable case even today's standard, must be a "jumbo" back then, very solid too.   Do you have any info on the movement?  It must be inhouse, right?

Regards

Ivan

Hi, Ivan,

AP has produced some completely inhouse calibres in its history, but mostly the ultra high complications (and then mostly pocketwaches.)

AP today has some completely inhouse (designed, produced completely inhouse) but these weren't introduced until after the Huitieme line was no more.

I'm not 100% sure of my memory, but I believe the basic calibre in the time and date Huitieme's as shown were the cal. 2123 or 2124, which were based on the JLC 888 and later 889.

A fine movement by most people's reckoning...

Cheers,

TM

TM

appreciate your sharing of such valuable information.  I am likely to pull the trigger on this one, will share photos later.  I have the AP RO, comparing the two, I will find them not that much different in the style and design but yet the RO goes on for so many years and the Huitieme disappears.  Gerard Genta's name must play a very important role in the RO's design to make it last so many years.  The Huitieme was a flagship model (I believe) and is hardly heard of nowadays.  For same level brands like VC, PP or Breguet, their flagship models in the 80 and 90's are still around.  Does it mean the Huitieme is unpopular due to quality issue or small in production volume?

Regards

Ivan

Hi, Ivan.

There is some similarity in the two designs in terms of "stacked layering" but I have never heard anyone else ever comment "not that much different in the style and design."

To most eyes they are completely different (besides the obvious fact that one is round and the other is mostly straight lines and octagonal.)

What catches the public fancy and has classical staying power is as much an art and unfathomable mystery as it is a rational exercise in ex post facto rationalization.  Think of it this way - if it were 100% predictable, why would any company produce anything BUT evergreeen classics? and how boring would that be? 

All AP models are "flagship" models - they did and do not have any "low end" models.

VC, PP, Breguet - I'm really not following.

Phidias? 222? All of the Les Historiques line?

3919?

Hora Mundi?

I definitely wouldn't draw any conclusions from the fact that model lines are discontinued or little remembered by "the market" decades later.

If you like the looks of the Huitieme, I would definitely get it.

Cheers,

TM

You are quite right, nobody can predict trend and fashion.  Suddenly, I know why I found this watch so attractive/familiar.  When I was a kid, I remember some of the AP wall clocks in lounges, hotels, clubs etc come in this design.  Nowadays, it is of course all in the RO design.

thanks again.