The Royal Oak owned by Gérald Genta and purchased by him, according to Audemars Piguet archives, on 15 May 1978 was auctioned at Sotheby's. With an initial base estimated at between 300,000 and 500,000 Swiss francs, the watch sold for no less than 2,107,000 Swiss francs, breaking the world record for the most expensive AP vintage watch sold at auction. The reasons for this success are to be found in several factors: firstly, the piece is part of the personal collection of the designer who created it (remember that the Royal Oak was born from the pencil of Genta in 1972); secondly, it is the only reference 5402 in stainless steel with a gold bezel to appear in an auction; and, icing on the cake, family tradition reports that this bezel was made in the Maestro's atelier, so much so that the modification does not appear in the Audemars Piguet archives.
The preconditions for such an adjudication were already in the air: on 24 February last, again at Sotheby's, the drawing of the original prototype of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in its final version, dating from around 1972, with NFT attached, was sold for the exceptional sum of 564,500 Swiss francs. Numerous other works by Genta auctioned in the same auction included one hundred original plates of his most iconic watches, some previously unpublished private commissions and a selection of innovative designs, executed in watercolour on blue card.
Finally, on 6 May, during Phillips' thematic 'Royal Oak 50th Sale', the second Royal Oak ever made (Ref. 5402ST A2 in steel), which was also one of the four watches presented to the press and public at the opening of the Basel Fair in 1972, fetched CHF 1,058,500, five times its minimum pre-auction estimate and, more importantly, just twice the hammer price of its prototype design.
