Description

An Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Selfwinding reference 15500ST in stainless steel, presenting the silver-white Grande Tapisserie dial, the least produced and most quietly desirable of the four dial variants offered on this reference. The watch is accompanied by its complete original set: AP presentation box, outer white box, warranty certificate, registration documents and all accompanying literature. The condition is good with light signs of use; this is a watch that has been worn and appreciated, without being treated carelessly. Powered by the in-house Calibre 4302 with 70-hour power reserve and visible through the sapphire caseback, it is one of the most mechanically accomplished movements ever fitted to the Royal Oak.

Gérald Genta’s Design – Fifty Years and Still Defining the Category

In 1972, Gérald Genta sketched the Royal Oak on a single sheet of paper the night before a Baselworld meeting with Audemars Piguet. The brief was a steel sports watch at a price that would make it the most expensive steel watch in the world. The result, an octagonal bezel secured by eight visible hexagonal screws, an integrated bracelet that flows seamlessly from the case, alternating satin-brushed and polished surfaces that create visual complexity from a single material, was unlike anything that existed. When it went on sale, the Royal Oak cost nearly ten times as much as a comparable Rolex. The industry considered it a provocation. The market made it a legend.

The reference 15500ST was introduced in 2019 as the successor to the 15400, and it addressed the one persistent criticism that collectors had levelled at the outgoing reference: that its movement was too small for the case, leaving the date aperture stranded too close to the centre of the dial. The 15500ST resolved this with the new Calibre 4302, a larger, more accomplished movement that returned the date to its correct position at the periphery of the dial, restored the proper dial proportions, and added 70 hours of power reserve. It is the Royal Oak as it was always meant to be, and it was discontinued in favour of the 15510 50th Anniversary edition, making all-steel 15500ST examples in full-set condition a genuinely finite proposition.

Calibre 4302 – The Movement the Royal Oak Deserved

The Calibre 4302 was developed by Audemars Piguet for the CODE 11.59 collection and was simultaneously fitted to the 15500ST, making this Royal Oak the first to benefit from the new generation of AP in-house movement. At 32mm in diameter, it fills the 41mm case correctly. It beats at 28,800 vph with a 70-hour power reserve, carries 32 jewels across 257 components, and winds via a skeletonised 22k gold rotor that is visible through the sapphire caseback alongside meticulous finishing: Cotes de Geneve striping across the bridges, polished chamfers on every anglage, and perlage on the baseplate. It is a movement that rewards examination as much as timekeeping, and the exhibition caseback of the 15500ST ensures it is never more than a flip away.

The Silver Dial – The Understated Configuration

The 15500ST was offered in four dial colours: blue, grey, black and silver-white. Of these, blue is the most recognised, the colour most immediately associated with the Royal Oak’s fifty-year history, and grey and black have their dedicated constituencies. The silver-white dial is the fourth option: the most restrained, the most versatile, and the least commonly encountered on the secondary market. Against the silver-white Grande Tapisserie ground the applied white gold hour markers and blue-tipped Royal Oak hands create a composition of quiet elegance that wears equally well under a shirt cuff and in the open. The Grande Tapisserie pattern itself, a guilloché chequerboard executed at AP’s in-house dial facility in Le Brassus, each crossing of the pattern finished individually, shifts from flat silver to a complex interplay of light and shadow as the wrist moves.

Specifications

Brand: Audemars Piguet

Model: Royal Oak Selfwinding

Reference: 15500ST.OO.1220ST.04

Case material: Stainless steel

Case diameter: 41 mm

Case thickness: 10.4 mm

Bezel: Octagonal stainless steel, eight hexagonal screws

Dial: Silver-white Grande Tapisserie guilloché dial with applied white gold hour markers

Hands: Royal Oak hands with blue-tipped luminescent coating

Bracelet: Integrated stainless steel bracelet with AP folding clasp

Movement: Calibre 4302, in-house automatic, 32mm, 28,800 vph, 70h power reserve, 32 jewels, 22k gold skeletonised rotor

Caseback: Sapphire exhibition caseback Water resistance: 50 metres

Condition: Good condition with light signs of use

Accessories: Full set – AP presentation box, outer box, warranty certificate, registration card and all documents

Warranty: 1 year warranty

Availability

This vintage day-date automatic watch is available through Vintage Times Amsterdam.

For further information or high-resolution images, please feel free to contact:

Vintage Times

Vintage Times Amsterdam is a small watch boutique who mainly deals online and with a select group of private collectors. We are constantly looking for rare vintage timepieces and try to present the best condition available. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact for more information about this watch or other timepieces from our collection. We ship worldwide and also welcome you for a visit at our office in Amsterdam.

Vintage Times

email: [email protected]

tel / app: +31 6 4 1111 044