Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong Kong, May 10, 2020

LOT 292

Audemars Piguet - Ref. 25858 BC, minute-repeater, one-minute tourbillon regulator; “Répétition Minutes Tourbillon, Jules Audemars”; 18K white gold

HKD 550,000 - 710,000

USD 70,000 - 90,000 / EUR 64,000 - 82,000 / CHF 70,000 - 90,000

Sold: HKD 650,000

18K white gold, manual-winding, round-shaped, gentleman’s wristwatch, with water-resistant sapphire-crystal case-back screwed by four screws, mother-of-pearl dial with spherical globe-like design and large luminescent suspended Arabic numerals, one-minute tourbillon regulator and one horological complication: • Minute-repeater on two gongs (activated by the slide located at 9 o’clock).


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 2 *
Dial: 2-01

Very good

HANDS Original

Brand Audemars Piguet, Le Brassus (Vallée de Joux)

Model “Répétition Minutes Tourbillon, Jules Audemars”

Reference 25858 BC OO D019CR 01

Year circa 2001-2004

Case No. E 90 413

Material 18K white gold

Bracelet brown crocodile leather AP strap

Buckle 18K white gold AP deployant clasp

Diameter 40 mm.

Caliber 2872, “tonneau”-shaped, adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and 5 positions

Signature dial, case and movement

Notes

Audemars Piguet, “Répétition Minutes Tourbillon” with Cal. 2872

The Ref. 25858, with the Cal. 2872 (minute-repeater with one-minute tourbillon regulator), fitted in a round shaped-case (Ø 39 mm.), was produced between 1996 and 2001 at only 14 examples and sold between 1997 and 2002, with different materials cases:
· 5 examples in 18K pink gold;
· 4 examples 18K white gold;
· 5 examples in platinum.
The Ref. 25937, with the same calibre and horological functions, fitted in a round shaped-case (Ø 39 mm.), was produced in 1998 at only 5 examples and sold between 1999 and 2000, in a fully diamond-set 18K white gold case with diamond-set dial and diamond-set bracelet.
The Ref. 25982, with the same calibre and horological functions, fitted in a “Jules Audemars” shaped-case (Ø 40 mm.), was produced in 2001 as a unique piece and sold the same year, in a diamond-set 18K white gold case.
Audemars Piguet Cal. 2872

The Cal. 2872 was produced until 1996 and 2001 in 20 examples only and was fitted in different reference case numbers (see above).

… and after 2000 ?

It appears nowadays that Audemars Piguet has still produced a few references 25858, “Répétition Minutes Tourbillon”, with Cal. 2872, at the begining of the 2000’s. After 2001-2002, the exact information is missing as it is not published in the latest edition of the Manufacture book dedicated to complicated wristwatches (see bibliography).

The present Ref. 25858 was probably produced after 2001 and was sold in 2004. Its mother-of-pearl dial with spherical globe-like design and large luminescent Arabic numerals is incredibly modern and makes it absolutely irresistible! Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly how much of this model was produced, but we can easily imagine that only a few pieces were taken from the workshops of the Vallée de Joux factory.

Bibliography

Chaille, François, Audemars Piguet, Le maître de l’horlogerie depuis 1875 – Master Watchmaker since 1875, Paris, Edition Flammarion, 2011, chapter “Tourbillon”, pp. 130-135.

Vivas, Sebastian, & Friedman, Michael L., Audemars Piguet 20th century, Complicated Wristwatches, Le Brassus (Vallée de Joux), Editions Audemars Piguet, 2018, chapter V, “Rebirth beyond the quartz crisis”, part 3 “Tourbillon since 1986”, pp. 244-255, and part 4, “Repeaters since 1992”, pp. 262-263, and “Appendices”, pp. 292-293, 299 and 303.

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