On Friday, Audemars Piguet announced UK luxury replica watches unlike anything else in its current line-up. That’s because it was last in its line-up 64 years ago.
The reference 5159BA was released in 1960, at the dawn of a decade that saw robust experimentation in shapes, sizes and materials – a freewheelin’ era that led to pilot Swiss made fake watches 24that looked like props from 2001: A Space Odyssey, flipboard models that resembled 1bedside clocks for the wrist and barrel-shaped designs 21made out of wood.
AAA best Audemars Piguet replica watches, then a fraction of the size it is now, had already started experimenting with the design of its bracelets and cases, notably trying to harmonise two shapes that had presided over watch design until then, the rectangle and the circle, into something angular, brutalist-looking and asymmetrical.
The 5159BA featured one such asymmetrical gold case, measured 27.5mm and was produced in a run of just seven units – one of which is on permanent display at Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, the watchmaker’s museum, in Le Brassus, Switzerland.
This new top copy watches – known as the [RE]Master02 – keeps the oddball case shape of the original, ups the size to 41mm and comes in AP’s latest ‘sand gold’ material. It’s also been made in more units – though not a vast amount more – 250.
The mouthful of a name continues AP’s trend of creating headaches for sub-editors – see also, the ‘Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet’ line – and is apparently a play on remastering old music recordings.
An earlier [RE]Master – the [RE]Master01 – coincided with the opening of AP’s museum in 2020, and was a reinterpretation of a chronograph from 1943.
“In the 1960s, Audemars Piguet produced several models inspired by the Brutalist movement, with angular shapes devoid of ornamentation,” Sébastian Vivas, heritage and museum director at AP says. “It was also the golden age of asymmetrical watches for the manufacture, with more than 30 models created between 1959 and 1963, most of which were produced in less than ten pieces. The 5159BA belongs to this generation of high quality replica watches.
“Looking back at the numerous records of the manufacture since its origins in 1875, the hardest part was choosing the model that would be subject to contemporary reinterpretation. Before the 1950s, each watch coming out of the workshops was unique. There were no ‘references’ or ‘models’, only infinite variations of shapes, materials and complications.
“From the front [the 5159BA] is beautiful. From the side, it looks like a science-fiction car. It is almost impossible to find [today]. I would be delighted to see more of this timepiece. If you hear anything about it, contact us!”
“The challenges to reinterpret [this watch] were numerous,” says Lucas Raggi, Audemars Piguet’s R&D director. “As it was necessary to maintain the original shape of the super clone watches for sale while adapting it to current quality standards.
“For example, the work that had to be done on the sapphire crystal – and recreate the glass with a 15.8° angle – required cutting-edge technology. Two years of research and development went into its design. The [RE]Master02 also features a case crafted in sand gold, a new 18-carat alloy whose shades vary between white and pink gold depending on the light and the movement of the wrist. Last but not least, it houses the new calibre 7129, an extra-thin hour and minute movement, only 2.8mm in thickness.”
The [RE]Master02 arrives at a time of renewed interest in unusually-shaped and blingy perfect replica watches designs from the 20th century. Though with a price of £41,000 your pockets will have to be pretty deep, as well as asymmetrical.