Introducing: The Audemars Piguet x Kaws Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon ‘Companion’
What We Know
Audemars Piguet is no stranger to bringing pop culture concepts into its ultra-high-end Royal Oak Concept platform. In the past few years, perhaps most famously (or infamously), we’ve seen our Friendly Neighborhood Web-Slinger as well as the King of Wakanda grace the dials of Concept Tourbillons, all in collaboration with Marvel. This time, Audemars Piguet teams up with the Brooklyn-based artist Kaws for a brand new take on the Concept Tourbillon with the artist’s iconic character design.
Kaws, whose real name is Brian Donnelly, rose to fame in the late ’90s with his graffiti interventionism in New York, eventually exploding into the contemporary Pop art scene with his toy creations that stemmed from his street art aesthetics.
Most famous is Kaws’ “Companion” character, a skull and crossbones take on a famous rubber-hose cartoon mouse that you’ve undoubtedly come across in its many forms – from vinyl toys to numerous apparel collaborations with brands like Nike and Uniqlo, to name a few.
Today, Audemars Piguet brings the Companion figure into the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon, featuring the iconic skull-shaped head, gloves, and of course X-shaped eyes. In this version, the Companion appears to be peering from behind the sapphire crystal, with the gloves and face of the Companion sculpted to make the figure look like it’s pressing against the glass. This figure is constructed entirely out of brushed and sandblasted titanium, sitting on top of a sunburst-brushed titanium dial plate with its chest revealing the tourbillon cage itself. The X-shaped eyes of the skull are filled with grey lacquer.
Unlike the other character-oriented Concept Tourbillons we’ve seen, this time the figure at the heart of the dial is not blocked by hour and minute hands. For this version, Audemars Piguet introduces a new peripheral time display, which features titanium hour and minute hands set on roller-guided gear wheels. The inner titanium rehaut features five-minute markings, and both the markings and the hands are lumed.
Driving the new peripheral time display is a new hand-wound movement, Calibre 2979, with a 60-second tourbillon that beats away at 3Hz. The bridges of the movement are coated in a black PVD treatment, and as another nod to the artist, the ratchet wheel of the caliber has been skeletonized in another Kaws X motif. The Audemars Piguet logo and other text are laser engraved and filled with white lacquer for contrast.
While similar in silhouette, the case of this Concept Tourbillon is slightly larger than the 42mm Spiderman and Black Panther Concept Tourbillons, coming in at 43mm. Just like other 43mm Royal Oak Concept models, the case features some additional angular inserts that give the already multifaceted titanium case even more contrasting finishes. The crown is in black ceramic, and the caseback features Kaws’ signature and the words “Limited Edition of 250 pieces.” Holding all the pieces of the case together are eight hexagonal “screws,” marked of course with the trademark Kaws “X.”
The watch comes with both a dark grey calfskin leather strap and a slate grey calfskin strap, both embossed with a textile pattern.
As you probably figured out from the caseback engraving, the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon “Companion” is a limited edition of 250 pieces and retails at 200,000 CHF.
What We Think
Okay, look. I’m that guy who goes to Comic-Con every year and manages to find that one booth that’s always stocked full of Kaws figures and stands in front of it for a good half hour, wondering if there’s ever a world in which I spend as much as a Rolex on a second-hand cartoon figure with Xs on its hands. The answer is no, but one can dream. So it should be no surprise to hear from me that this collaboration very much puts a smile on my face.
If you’re not a fan of modern consumerist-driven art like that of Kaws, then it’s safe to say this watch is probably not for you. But in a world where watch and toy collectors alike can spend disproportional amounts of their income collecting sought-after objects, and artists like Kaws have fetched auction prices for some pieces in the millions of dollars, the 250 watches in production will be certain to find buyers, just like the Marvel collaborations did at this price point. For a die-hard Kaws collector, with art and sculptures no doubt filling their home, having the artist’s touch on a watch seems like the final frontier – finally, a rare edition that they can wear anywhere they go.
From a conceptual perspective, I genuinely think that this collaboration is well done. In a way that I didn’t quite feel with the Marvel collaborations, this time, Kaws’ art and AP’s watchmaking seem to play off of each other quite well. The sculpting of the titanium Companion, in a way that interacts with the form of the watch, is just so self-aware and specific. The figure in metal also serves as another twist, as I typically associate most Companion figures to be vinyl or wood. The textures and contrast of brushing and sandblasting here work well as something fresh.
Audemars Piguet is no doubt developing this new movement with a peripheral time display with the full intent of utilizing it as a platform for future character-centric collaborations, Kaws or not. It’s a significantly better system for these designs than the traditional handset, so I’m curious about what other artists or pop culture properties AP might find itself collaborating with down the line. But for now, this Le Brassus and Brooklyn creation will be the one to note.
The Basics
Brand: Audemars Piguet
Model: Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon “Companion”
Reference Number: 26656TI.GG.D019VE.01
Diameter: 43mm
Thickness: 17.4mm
Case Material: Titanium
Dial Color: Grey
Indexes: Inner bezel with five-minute markings
Lume: Yes
Water Resistance: 100m
Strap/Bracelet: Interchangeable light grey and slate grey calfskin leather straps
The Movement
Caliber: Calibre 2979
Functions: Hours, minutes, 60-second tourbillon
Diameter: 32.3mm
Thickness: 10.4mm
Power Reserve: 72 hours
Winding: Manual
Frequency: 21,600 VpH / 3 Hz
Jewels: 39
Pricing & Availability
Price: 200,000 CHF
Availability: Audemars Piguet Boutiques
Limited Edition: Yes, 250 pieces
For more, click here.
Hodinkee