Seven-time Grammy award-winning American singer and guitarist, John Mayer, has been gifted the keys to create a very special piece with Audemars Piguet. He’s applied his legendary taste to the last iteration of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar equipped with the Manufacture’s self-winding Calibre 5134 movement.
Limited to 200 pieces, he’s chosen a gorgeous white-gold case and deep blue “Crystal Sky” dial that shows outstanding depth and clarity. Audemars Piguet’s artisans created a brass dial plate that adds embossed irregular shapes resembling crystals. This process demands maximum precision and the brand says the stamping die was created atom by atom through a metal deposition process known as electroforming. General rule of thumb with high horology: If it looks complicated, it probably is.
“My favourite watches have dials that you can stare endlessly at. A great watch dial feels like a picture
window – you look into it, not at it,” said Mayer. “In the case of this QP, it’s like looking up at a moonless sky. And when you couple that sense of depth and vastness with the complication of a perpetual calendar, it is a very powerful combination of technical prowess and aesthetic design.”
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Subdials are finished in a matching blue PVD that displays the day at 9 o’clock, the month and leap year at 12 o’clock and the date at 3 o’clock. The contrasting white calender and week indications are tasteful and functional against the blue background. We also love how the hour markers and hands are finished in 18-carat white gold with additional luminous material. Now, let’s get a little nerdy.
To demonstrate his eye for detail, John Mayer has added several subtle details to his Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar to help it stand out to the trained eye, including:
- Number ’31’ on the date subdial is printed in white (usually red)
- It’s also slightly smaller in size and stepped to distinguish from the adjacent ‘1’
- Light blue colour for the week indicator so it blends into the dial
- The laser-microstructured moon phase indicator at 6 o’clock set against an aventurine background
- The ‘Swiss Made’ inscription is printed in white at the bottom of the moon phase subdial rather than on the dial’s outer edge at 6 o’clock for the first time
Finally, in terms of construction, the dial and sapphire caseback are framed in 18-carat white gold, while the case and bracelet are both finished with the Manufacture’s satin brushing and polished chamfers. On the caseback, you’ll find “Royal Oak Quantieme Perpetuel” and “Limited Edition of 200 Piece.”
Under the surface is the legendary Calibre 5134 movement for the final time. To explain what it does briefly, it automatically takes into account the number of days in the month and displays the correct date even in leap years. Keep the watch wound (40 hours power reserve) and the date will not require manual correction until 2100, at which point it will need to be adjusted to stay in line with the Gregorian calendar.
What’s even more amazing is that this movement has a history that dates back to the peak of the quartz crisis when Audemars Piguet released the thinnest self-winding perpetual calendar of the time in the Calibre 2120/2800. Fast forward a few significant milestones and the brand released this final Calibre 5134 iteration in 2015.
We could sit here and wax poetic about the calibre and the history that served as a base for its modern-day iteration, but we’ll let the creator of the watch do the honours. “The perpetual calendar is for me the ultimate complication, the benchmark for high horology, and though there are complications that are more complex, the historical footing of the QP in the history of watchmaking is what makes it stand out,” said Mayer.
“Calibre 5134 will go down in history as one that defined an era of watch collecting – and public enthusiasm at large – for a complication that had not enjoyed that kind of attention and desire before.”
The brand will only be making 200 pieces of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar ‘John Mayer’ Limited Edition (Ref. 26574BC.OO.1220BC.02) so don’t expect to walk into a boutique and buy one tomorrow. Availability and pricing is available upon request at the brand’s website linked below.
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