Our remarks

UDEMARS PIGUET Ultra-Thin,  Rare 18k White Gold, Caliber 2003, Original Detachable Bracelet, Year 1960, Rare Dial Configuration, Very Good Condition

Long before the Royal Oak redefined what an Audemars Piguet could look like, the manufacture built its reputation on watches like this one, dress pieces engineered around one single obsession, thinness, at a time when that was one of the hardest problems in watchmaking to solve.

The case is 18k white gold, sized in AP's typically compact dress watch proportions of this era, and fitted with its original detachable bracelet, a brick or Gay Freres style link construction that was itself a costly and time consuming option when new, offered as an upgrade over the standard leather strap. Having the matching original bracelet still paired with the watch, rather than lost to time as with most surviving examples, adds real value on its own.

The dial carries a genuinely rare configuration compared to the more commonly seen layouts from this production run, one of the details that makes a piece like this stand out to collectors who specifically hunt for early AP dress watch variants rather than the standard catalogue execution.

Inside runs the caliber 2003, developed by Audemars Piguet in 1953 alongside similar efforts at Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin, and for a period the thinnest manual winding movement on the market at under 2mm thick. It remained in production for roughly five decades, a rare case of a movement proving both technically groundbreaking and remarkably long lived.

This example is offered as:

• Very good condition
• Rare dial configuration
• Original detachable bracelet, no box or papers

"An Audemars Piguet from before the Royal Oak changed everything, still wearing the ultra-thin obsession that built the brand's early reputation."

A genuinely rare, and significant piece of AP, made all the more desirable by its surviving original gold bracelet.