Hands On: A Historical Audemars Piguet Triple Calendar Wristwatch from 1927 | SJX Watches

The early days of the wristwatch were interesting for the variety of forms and functions that were conceived as watchmakers were experimenting with a nascent device. One such watch is the Audemars Piguet triple calendar with moon phase in platinum from 1927 that’s one of the top lots in Monaco Legend’s upcoming sale.

Now almost 100 years old, this triple calendar exemplifies the period when wristwatches, particularly complicated ones, were expensive and cutting-edge objects.

Form cases in general seem to have been fashionable when wristwatches were a novelty. Leaving aside the round “trench” watches used by soldiers, many of the landmark wristwatch designs for civilians were in form cases. Examples include the Cartier Tank, Santos, and Tonneau.

Many such wristwatches were time only, but there was clearly a tiny handful of clients for complicated wristwatches. Calendar watches, many in form cases, were also in vogue. Most prestigious watchmakers produced such watches, albeit on a tiny scale in a near-artisanal manner, making each of these watches almost unique.

Breguet, for example, sold a tonneau-shaped retrograde perpetual calendar in 1935 to Coco Chanel’s romantic partner.

Audemars Piguet made fewer than 50 such rectangular triple calendar wristwatches in the 30 years from 1924, and this is the one example known in platinum. All of these watches were powered by the cal. 10GHSM, as this one is, save for the very first example that was made in 1924 and now resides in the Audemars Piguet museum.

The timepieces that made up this series of calendar wristwatches were all similar in outline but individually different, a result of small-scale production that often relied on manual methods. This example has applied Breguet numerals and white gold Breguet hands, while the watch in the Audemars Piguet museum has printed Arabics and blued steel hands.

This watch shows its age, though it is still appealing and honest. Some of the wear, especially on the dial, looks to be the result of an inept attempt at cleaning in the past. That said, Audemars Piguet is especially good at sympathetic restoration of vintage watches in case you are inclined to go that route.

All of the known specimens of the rectangular triple calendar wristwatch were sold by jewellers or retailers; most were marked with the retailer’s name as well. Some, like the 1925 example signed “A l’Emeraude” sold by Phillips in 2024, were not even marked Audemars Piguet.

This example was sold in Paris in 1927 by Van Cleef & Arpels (VC&A), explaining the French hallmark and the jeweller’s stock number on the back. It arrived at VC&A via Egouvillon, Lafont et Cie., a Parisian diamond dealer that was the Audemars Piguet agent at the time. Not long after this watch was sold, Egouvillon, Lafont et Cie. went bankrupt in the wake of the Great Depression.

The use of multiple intermediaries between watchmaker and client was the norm at the time, when watch brands were tiny outfits with no commercial power, instead relying on agents, importers, and retailers, while jewellers typically sold a variety of luxury goods manufactured by other firms.

Take the two most complicated historical Audemars Piguet watches. One is the record-setting “Grosse Pièce” of 1921, which is signed “S. Smith & Son”, the London firm that sold the watch. The other is the Universelle that was delivered to Dürrstein & Co., and signed “Uhrenfabrik Union Glashütte” on the dial.

But while this triple calendar travelled some way from Le Brassus to Paris, it hasn’t changed hands many times since it left VC&A’s premises in 1927.

The watch was finally sold by the descendants of the original owner in 2022, when it was acquired by the consignor for a little over €170,000. This means the watch has had only two owners since it was sold at VC&A some 99 years ago.

Perhaps because of their size and condition today — the majority of such wristwatches were not water resistant — wristwatches from this period don’t have a cachet equal to their historical value. Important early wristwatches still sell for substantial sums, but the numbers are not extraordinary compared to the hot, hyped watches of today. This arguably makes them a strong value relative to some other highly-priced watches.

This Audemars Piguet triple calendar has an estimate of €200,000-400,000 and is lot 208 in the Monaco Legend Auctions sale taking place on November 1.

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