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Lot Essay
In production for one year between 1996 and 1997, only 8 examples of this ultra-rare platinum reference 25835 minute repeater with perpetual calendar and moon phases were made. To the best of our knowledge, the present timepiece is the only platinum cased example to so far appear at auction. It was released as part of the ‘John Shaeffer’ collection, one of the most important and successful AP collections of the 1990s and early 2000s.
The John Shaeffer Collection
The release of the ‘John Shaeffer’ Collection coincided with a great revival by Audemars Piguet of complicated wristwatches, in particular the minute repeater mechanism and other chiming watches for which AP had become renowned in the 1920s. Stylistically, the John Shaeffer Collection lent itself perfectly to be the vehicle for a number of models featuring amazing complications that echoed AP’s early masterpieces. The design of the collection was directly inspired by the ‘coussin tortue’ shape of a very important minute repeating wristwatch from AP’s history - personalized for John Wallace Shaeffer, vice president of the Allied Chemical Corporation located in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1927. The dial with letters in place of hour numerals spelling the 12-letter name ‘JOHN SHAEFFER’. When Shaeffer’s watch was first exhibited publically as a new acquisition at the Audemars Piguet Museum in 1992, it was so highly acclaimed by visitors that the company decided to create an entirely new collection under the John Shaeffer name that paid homage to the design of the original. The John Shaeffer collection has the magical combination of strong heritage DNA and high complication, the present minute repeater with perpetual calendar and moon phase is aesthetically and technically superb, it is without doubt one of the classic masterpieces of Audemars Piguet and a rare prize for the collector.
Audemars Piguet have always been famed for their mastery of high complications, unrelentingly striving for both excellence and new innovation in watchmaking. Amongst all the complications which can be found in wristwatches, minute repeaters are most probably the rarest, especially when considering that just a handful of manufacturers were accomplished enough to make this exclusive mechanism for their wristwatches. The great achievement of the best wristwatch manufacturers has been to continually strive to overcome the difficulties of reducing the sizes of these highly complex mechanisms to fit within the confines of the wristwatch and to invent new manufacturing methods to improve existing complications, whilst at the same time always having an eye on the design and beauty of their products.
The John Shaeffer Collection
The release of the ‘John Shaeffer’ Collection coincided with a great revival by Audemars Piguet of complicated wristwatches, in particular the minute repeater mechanism and other chiming watches for which AP had become renowned in the 1920s. Stylistically, the John Shaeffer Collection lent itself perfectly to be the vehicle for a number of models featuring amazing complications that echoed AP’s early masterpieces. The design of the collection was directly inspired by the ‘coussin tortue’ shape of a very important minute repeating wristwatch from AP’s history - personalized for John Wallace Shaeffer, vice president of the Allied Chemical Corporation located in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1927. The dial with letters in place of hour numerals spelling the 12-letter name ‘JOHN SHAEFFER’. When Shaeffer’s watch was first exhibited publically as a new acquisition at the Audemars Piguet Museum in 1992, it was so highly acclaimed by visitors that the company decided to create an entirely new collection under the John Shaeffer name that paid homage to the design of the original. The John Shaeffer collection has the magical combination of strong heritage DNA and high complication, the present minute repeater with perpetual calendar and moon phase is aesthetically and technically superb, it is without doubt one of the classic masterpieces of Audemars Piguet and a rare prize for the collector.
Audemars Piguet have always been famed for their mastery of high complications, unrelentingly striving for both excellence and new innovation in watchmaking. Amongst all the complications which can be found in wristwatches, minute repeaters are most probably the rarest, especially when considering that just a handful of manufacturers were accomplished enough to make this exclusive mechanism for their wristwatches. The great achievement of the best wristwatch manufacturers has been to continually strive to overcome the difficulties of reducing the sizes of these highly complex mechanisms to fit within the confines of the wristwatch and to invent new manufacturing methods to improve existing complications, whilst at the same time always having an eye on the design and beauty of their products.