John Mayer Teams Up with AP for a Spectacular Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar

It’s no secret that Audemars Piguet has long been involved with celebrities and influential people from the world of music. It usually goes well beyond ambassadors and AP has launched several watches in collaboration with musicians – the latest to surface was the chocolate ceramic Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar “Cactus Jack” made with Travis Scott. Now, it’s time for a collaboration with artist (and famous watch collector) John Mayer, who has decided to bring a fresh, modern take on the classic Tuscan dial perpetual calendar. Meet the new Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar “John Mayer” Limited Edition 26574BC, a watch that also has historical importance, as we’ll see when talking about its calibre 5134.

What we’re looking at here is nothing groundbreaking at first sight. In most aspects, this John Mayer limited version of the RO QP is identical to the permanent collection models we’ve covered here. What matters has to do with the dial, its texture and its influences; and besides the collaboration theme, AP has decided that it was time to say goodbye to its beloved perpetual calibre 5134 – which is still based on the classic calibre 2120 (itself now discontinued). But more on that later.

First, the watch. John Mayer, a longtime friend of the brand and avid watch collector, has decided to give the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar his own touch in a way that will certainly please more than a few collectors. The idea – potentially –  was to bring a contemporary take to one of the brand’s most classic and coveted versions of the RO perpetual, the Tuscan dial. This grained, once hand-hammered texture has been seen on multiple watches in the past and was primarily released in the 1990s and has remained a rare sight, used on Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars, on one particular Royal Oak Jumbo model and on a variety of classic Perpetual Calendars. Last year, AP released the Royal Oak Jumbo 16202BC with a blue textured dial that was directly modelled after these vintage models.

Here, however, Mayer went for something different, far more contemporary but nevertheless pretty impressive. While the Tuscan connection isn’t clearly mentioned by the brand, we certainly can’t deny it. What Audemars says about the dial is that it was designed to evoke the vastness of the skies. Named “Crystal Sky”, this dial is obtained thanks to a stamped process. “The brass dial plate is finished with a new scintillating pattern (…) composed of irregular shapes resembling crystals, whose sharp angles and facets add relief and brilliance to the piece“. Achieving that level of detail with a stamped dial is, however, no easy task. The stamping die was created atom by atom through a metal deposition process known as electroforming.

The result is a texture that feels almost like a natural crystal. At first, I thought the dial was osmium or some sort of lab-grown precious stone. And no, it’s plain old brass… Kudos to the AP team for achieving such a stunning texture with what is usually considered a basic material.

The rest of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar John Mayer retains a certain classicism (at least for an RO) with very discreet unique features. The dark blue dial, a signature colour of the Royal Oak, is obtained thanks to a PVD process used to preserve and enhance the depth of the pattern. The recessed sub-dials are identical to all classic versions of the RO QP with a fine snailed pattern and the same PVD colouring. The display still consists of the day at 9 o’clock, the month and leap year at 12 o’clock and the date at 3 o’clock, as well as the moon at 6 o’clock with an aventurine background.

The dial is framed by the original week number display. What sets this John Mayer version apart is the use of a light blue central week hand and a special touch on the date indicator. The red 31 indication has been replaced by a white one, and the two numerals of the 31 are now smaller in size and slightly stepped to distinguish them from the adjacent 1.

For the rest, the watch is classic: 41mm diameter x 9.5mm thickness, white gold case with brushed and polished surfaces, classic RO shape and a limited water-resistance of 20m. The bracelet is also identical to previous non-limited editions. The sapphire caseback is screwed and engraved with “Royal Oak Quantieme Perpetuel” and “Limited Edition of 200 Pieces.”

Inside this Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar John Mayer is the calibre 5134. Nothing special… Or so you might think. In fact, while the movement is the same as other RO QP models, this John Mayer version will be the last limited edition equipped with the self-winding perpetual calendar 5134. Launched in 2015, the calibre 5134 adapted the perpetual calendar movement to the classic 2120 base while maintaining a low profile of 4.3mm. But as we said, the base movement is not the newest of all. It was launched in 1967 and was at the heart of the Royal Oak Jumbo 5402ST of 1972. But now that AP has released the 16202ST Jumbo with a new movement (calibre 7121), it would feel legitimate to replace the base of the perpetual calendar models, too. It thus brings down the curtain on a great chapter of the brand’s history.

Released as a limited edition of 200 pieces, the price of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar “John Mayer” Limited Edition (reference 26574BC.OO.1220BC.02) will be CHF 150,000 (excl. VAT). For more details, please visit www.audemarspiguet.com.