Appear where you least expect it. The Audemars Piguet manufacture likes to surprise. It all starts in 2021. Rumors are being heard about a mysterious collaboration between the house of Le Brassus and Marvel. After countless wild speculations on the web, it was during a star-studded event in Los Angeles organized by Kevin Hart with personalities like Serena Williams and LeBron James that François-Henry Bennahmias, the CEO of Audemars Piguet – who will be stepping down shortly after enabling the brand to quadruple sales in ten years – finally unveils what everyone has been waiting for: the Royal Oak Concept Black Panther Flying Tourbillon. A horological UFO that has been talked about a lot, unremarkable for some, confusing for others and on which is a miniaturized sculpture of the popular character Black Panther planted in the center of the dial where a flying tourbillon floats at 6 o’clock. However, few watches have had such an impact on the watchmaking sphere and on social networks like Instagram and TikTok where critics have had a blast.
A stroke of strength and brilliance that has encouraged Audemars Piguet to pursue this disruptive and avant-garde partnership with the world of comics and superheroes. Just presented to the general public, the new Royal Oak X Marvel is already cult. After Black Panther, the brand opts this time for Peter Parker alias Spider-Man. One of the most popular heroes in the Marvel comics universe knowing that the seven films dedicated to the fictional character have brought in more than $7 billion at the box office for more than 20 years.
Combining ancestral know-how and futuristic technology, this new Marvel timepiece displays a clever mix of materials highlighting the inexhaustible creativity of Audemars Piguet in terms of complicated watches. The latter is presented in a titanium case 42 mm in diameter, contrasted by a black ceramic bezel and crown. Like the Black Panther edition, the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon Spider-Man gives the starring role to the superhero and the floating tourbillon at 6 o’clock. The new hand-wound Caliber 2974 required all the know-how of Audemars Piguet engineers to give the watch extreme skeletonwork. By reducing the architecture of the movement to a bare minimum, they have achieved a level of transparency that allows the character of Spider-Man to appear in relief, crossing the entire thickness of the watch, as if suspended in a vacuum through the sapphire crystal.
In total, no less than 50 hours of work were needed by the watchmaker’s craftsmen to give a faithful image of the spider-man. Its silhouette and volume have been cut beforehand in a block of white gold using a CNC machine. Her costume was then laser engraved to achieve the grain differences that give it its textile look, not to mention that everything was hand painted to give it its recognizable two-tone aesthetic, contrasting a matte red and blue metallic. On the dial, there are alternating indexes and Arabic numerals in 18-carat gold coated with black PVD, hovered over by hands made of the same material. All feature a polished finish and are coated in a white luminescent coating that tints blue in the dark, subtly referencing the Spider-Man universe.
Available with two straps in black and gray rubber and black and red rubber, with interchangeable system – a first on the 42mm Royal Oak Concept case – the reference is limited to 250 pieces. It is complemented by a unique piece called Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon Black Suit Spider-Man, which sold at auction in Dubai for an amount of 6.2 million dollars. A sum that will be entirely donated to Ashoka and First Book, two non-profit organizations. Finally, it should be noted that the project for Audemars Piguet’s third opus with Marvel was already planned by François-Henry Bennahmias before the latter bowed out. The watch is expected to be unveiled in 2025.
