The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Mini Needs No Extra Ice
In June, Audemars Piguet revived the Royal Oak Mini, a frosted gold 23mm iteration of its even tinier 1997 predecessor. To the peanut gallery, this might be just another Royal Oak, the collection AP is indeed synonymous with; but to those of us tapped in, this watch, like its ad copy calls out, is “mini yet mighty.” Wrapped up in this teeny tiny package is the story of one woman’s immense impact on Audemars Piguet and how, now, mini watches are the moment.
Point one: Impeccable history.
The Royal Oak watch is so famous that many people even know of its original designer, Gérald Genta (whose name was the first I memorized upon learning about watches working at Sotheby’s in 2019). Genta’s diver helmet-inspired Royal Oak came to life in 1972, effectively allowing Audemars Piguet to reinvent themselves amidst the industry-wide quartz crisis while indefinitely changing the watch game as we know it.
This was the birth of the “steel sports watch,” a category so ubiquitous now it’s easy to take for granted. Before the Royal Oak, the Rolex Submariners of the world, were not considered luxury items, and it wasn’t until Genta’s octagonal design that we started imagining this class of watches as luxury for luxury’s sake. No one needed a steel sports watch – let alone one sized at 39mm, considered jumbo for the time – let alone a mechanical one, when they could pick up something quartz-powered for a fraction of the price. But they wanted one.
Genta’s design may have changed the game, but Jacqueline Dimier made it last. After seven years at Rolex, she joined Audemars Piguet as Head of Design. In 1976, the women’s 29mm Royal Oak Model 8638 was born, a full 10mm smaller than Genta’s. “It wasn’t easy,” Dimier recalls of the design process, per Audemars Piguet’s website. “The watch was barely four years old and it was quintessentially masculine. It was intimidating to be asked to adapt one of the legendary Gérald Genta’s creations. My approach was to preserve its character as a timepiece and focus on proportions. I wanted the watch to stay big, which wasn’t the trend for women at all.” (Yes, 29mm was considered big in the ‘70s.)
Facing the challenge, she managed to soften Genta’s model, a watch whose hand-finished steel case and bracelet already shone like a diamond, warranting extra ice, often applied to ladies’ watches, unnecessary. She also kept the eight visible screws on the bezel, a decidedly masc detail that looks chic and sporty sized down.
Royal Oaks appeared in precious metals, varying sizes, set with gemstones, and so on. By the ‘80s, nearly half of the Royal Oaks were running on a quartz battery, but Audemars Piguet, led by Dimier, took a bet on haute horlogerie and helped revive the industry’s use of classic complications. This is most drastically exemplified in 1997’s Royal Oak Grande Complication: a work of insane technical excellence whose roots date back to 1875, countered by the quartz-powered release of the 20mm “Mini” that same year.
“Between the mini Royal Oak, on one end of the spectrum, and the Royal Oak Grande Complication on the other end,” says Michael Friedman, Audemars Piguet’s former Head of Complications, name-checked in Kendrick Lamar’s “Rich Spirit” (AP / Michael Friedman / my friends cooler), “the 25th anniversary of the Royal Oak in 1997 set the template for decades to follow.”
And we’re still feeling that impact, which leads us to today’s (much yearned-for) revival of the Mini.
Point two: The mini is ahead of a massive market trend.
As of May 2024, the smallest modern Royal Oak available was 33mm (the last models under 30 mm vanished after 2004). The watch cognoscenti (myself included) had been calling for smaller watches for years. Celebs were starting to pick up the cry, too. When Hailey Bieber bought her little gold Royal Oak last summer, sourced by vintage watch retailer Very Special, news spread quickly on magazine “watch roundups” and social media.
Leigh Safar, Senior Vice President and Specialist in the Watches Department at Sotheby's, says that “at auction, in our online sales, smaller watches have been super successful,” noting that the (for now) undervalued ladies watches haven’t yet made it into the more prominent live sales. “But they're stronger than they have been in recent years, at least in the United States – ladies watches have been more popular in Asia for some time, so I think the industry’s response is just more about expanding the clientele, rather than presenting ‘small watches’ as a suddenly new idea.”
To its credit, Audemars Piguet has been uncharacteristically in-tune to what’s hot, relative to the rest of the watch industry, as evidenced by their recent Travis Scott collaboration, tracking all the way back to their partnership with Jay-Z on the Royal Oak Offshore anniversary watch in 2005.
“The appetite for smaller watches is clearly on the up. For AP to have gotten this into production whenever they needed to was a smart move,” says Mike Tran, Design Director at Supreme and co-founder of Very Special. Tran, like many of us watching, notices “when legacy brands like AP show they aren’t asleep at the wheel,” plucking design cues from the zeitgeist.
And, point three: Quality.
Enter the Mini.
The frosted gold finishing on the three iterations of the watch derive from the jeweler Carolina Bucci’s signature, shimmering “Florentine finish,” which first appeared on a Royal Oak in 2016, as Bucci collaborated with AP to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Jacqueline Dimier’s first design. Inside, the Mini is powered by a Calibre 2730 quartz movement, whose innovative technology makes for a 7 year power reserve (typical quartz movements found in, say, a Cartier Panthère, require servicing around every 2 years). Some people get tripped up on the fact that this watch is powered by a battery (vs. a mechanical movement) especially since the Minis cost $34,000 at retail (woof!). But veteran watch journalist Robin Swithinbank sees the big picture value. “The thing is, if AP can do quartz without the brand’s reputation missing a step, so can the rest,” says Swithinbank, who feels that this will open up the floodgates for more haute horlogerie brands to follow suit and give the people what they want (smaller watches).
Michael Friedman ultimately credits Jacqueline Dimier – rather than a groundswell of small-watch appeal – with where we’re at today. “What I admire most about the Mini Royal Oak is [how it represents] that Jacqueline Dimier, in 1997, once again pushed the model in yet another direction,” Friedman said to me, over a WhatsApp call in Switzerland, where he’s busy working on a highly anticipated new watch brand, Pattern Recognition. “Her impact throughout the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s is powerful and undeniable.”
According to representatives from Audemars Piguet, the team dedicated three years to the development of this watch, meaning that they certainly were on the cutting edge of this now blown up trend. Mike Tran boils the positive, viral reception of the new Mini Royal Oaks down to “great watch, great timing.”
Surprise, the reception has been fantastic:
“I like the size of the Mini due to it being so versatile, where it could blend in with bracelets/cuffs/bangles,” says stylist Matthew Mazur, who made headlines putting Lil’ Nas X in a vintage ‘70s Piaget jewelry watch for this year’s Met Gala, accessorizing his Swarovski-encrusted Luar look. Mazur likes big watches, too, but feels that they only work as the singular wrist accessory. Whereas with small watches, there’s more room to play. “You can still make a statement, and it would say: ‘this is everyday luxury, alongside my wrist party of other fabulous acquisitions that live in harmony and don’t overpower each other.’”
“A new audience is being considered,” says Nikki Ogunnaike, Editor in Chief of Marie Claire, who bought herself a vintage teeny tiny Royal Oak in 2023. “The new Mini feels catered toward women, or, at the very least, people with small wrists.”
AP is building upon Jacqueline Dimier’s legacy of treating the Royal Oak as a blank canvas. And the decision to release the Minis in the frosted gold, marrying a jeweler’s finish with watchmaking, is pointing toward a direction that transcends the “small watch” trend. Much like Cartier’s reimagining of their classic Baignoire on a bangle, watch brands are starting to prioritize more creativity in the craft. And this is good for everyone, begging Mike Tran’s question: “Can we get the Mini in a men’s length bracelet?”
