You have got to be the most honest watch reviewer on RU-vid. Never pulling any punches and not blinded by hype, biased by sponsors, etc. Please keep it that way! I love how critical you are in every review while still finding something to like about each piece. One thing to note though, you should check out the movement finishing under higher magnification if you get a chance. They massively downgraded it in the 16202 compared to the 15202, and no one talks about it. Hardly any hand finishing (or perfunctory hand finishing at best). The vast majority of APs customers can't tell though, so it's a brilliant business move to increase margin on their part.
Thank you! Very kind words. I don’t see there being any reason to change haha. And very interesting I don’t know that on the finishing. To be fair it is usually fairly hard to tell small detail hand finishing from machine unless you have it side by side with a loupe so yes very interesting move by ap.
@@theknightswatch yep, definitely hard to tell unless you have 10x loupe or a nice crop on a macro shot. Then the truth comes out 😁 I would be happy to share some comparison pictures which demonstrate this if you're interested... Just don't know how to do so on RU-vid 🙆
I tried one on at a get-together and it fit pretty well on my 6.75" wrist. The owner said he bought it in the early 2010's for around $13,000 (not a typo).
Brilliant review, thorough, detailed, balanced. Functional art is a great way of describing it, and I suppose could be a good way to excuse the potentially imperfect wrist feel
The problem with some of these integrated bracelet watches is that the vast majority of its mass is on the top of your wrist. There is a vertical center of mass and a sharp taper moves that point up causing it to pivot or attempt to slide and it puts more pressure on the bottom of the bracelet, making it dig into your wrist. A sacrifice made for aesthetics but a sacrifice nonetheless. Amazing review. I was happy to see you treat it like any other watch and it deserves scrutiny.
Great presentation of, as you say, an icon. How great to be able to experience something like this for a week and file that in your “Watch experience” My reaction is similar to my reaction of the Speedy. I know I’m supposed to love it and “have it in the collection”, but I’m just not a fan of them. But also in this same way, that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy seeing an episode on this Royal Oak… and I did !
Thank you. And I was very much to a similar mind. The RO never spoke to me but I do appreciate it in person. That being said this isn’t the model for me. I never found one I truly wanted until the newest 15550 grey dial and I do like the look of some of the vintage moonphase RO but never had those in hand
In the future collectors will put a premium on Jumbos with the 2121 movement. It's prettier, has a lot more hand-finishing, and is arguably one of the most historical movements of all time. It's overblown when people say it doesn't have a quickset date. It does, but most people don't know how to use it.
Great review. Interesting that even at this price point there are QC issues however minute they may be. The lack of microadjustment is also a big oversight. Most wrists naturally swell and shrink during the day. But I suppose if you are wearing an AP you are probably sitting in an air conditioned office every day.
Haha fair enough and thank you! I pretty much haven’t looked at a watch that doesn’t have qc issues so it’s usually to be expected it’s just to what level. They are definitely thinks like the links they can do to improve this watch so we’ll see if they do in time!
I doubt you can find a perfectly clean watch under high magnification. Watches are not made in dust-free rooms and most watchmakers use metal tools to assemble them. So dust or minor scratches are almost impossible to avoid.
Very well done, sir. Never been a watch that attracted me, historical superstar as it may be. Too much bracelet, not enough watch. With a queue at their door years long, it's sad to see AP apparently taking short cuts with the execution after 50 years. Value and Holy Trinity are not concepts that co-exist anyway I guess.
yup. every year AP gets cheaper and cheaper with build quality (for example compare the 1st gen 15202 to this and it's night and day between build quality).
It’s still a gold rotor. The 2022 models did receive the 50year jubilee rotor. White gold for steel and platinum. Yellow gold and rose gold according to the case.
I used to really love this watch, but these days (I feel weird saying it) it just looks so Tissot. Which isn’t a problem until you discuss price. I know why the price is what it is, I’m just strictly talking overall design.
@@theknightswatch No I totally agree, Tissot is the imitator for sure. Anyway, I’m a NOMOS guy. I was just making an observation. My limit on any watch is 10k anyway. Anything beyond that is far beyond my reach. Probably a very good thing 😂
