I’ve spent the past few weeks in the deep end of the Royal Oak pool, soaking up as much knowledge and detail as possible before the upcoming auction season. I’m walking away from this experience with a greater appreciation for just how versatile the AAA UK replica Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watches is as a platform for dial experimentation. And of all dials that have fascinated me over the past few weeks, I am most enamored with those of the Tuscan variety.
The so-called Tuscan dial features a hand-hammered finish and is outfitted with a rich blue galvanized tone. It’s almost as if you took the high quality fake Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watches’ traditional tapissiere decoration and shattered it into a million pieces before dumping the remains into a vat of bright blue dye. There’s nothing quite like it. From the intricate dimples caused by the hand hammering process to the bold blue hue, it strikes a different tone than all the other Royal Oaks I’ve seen over the years.
The Tuscan dial is a fairly rare phenomenon, occurring only on certain best replica watches that were primarily released in the 1990s. It’s most commonly found on Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars, but can also be found on a select number of perpetual calendar wristwatches produced by Audemars Piguet in circular cases, such as the lovely ref. 25657.
Other than various auction listings, there’s not a ton of publicly available knowledge on the Tuscan dial variants of the Royal Oak. It’s likely the name came from collectors in Italy, a key market for top Audemars Piguet copy watches throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, but I haven’t been able to confirm any clear connection behind the Tuscan region of Italy and the color blue.
The Swiss made replica watches also represent an early example of a hand-hammered dial in a wristwatch. It’s a technique that’s more popular today and can be found on dials by makers such as Akrivia and Grönefeld, but prior to AP using it for the Tuscan dial, it was rather rare and limited in its application. Rare but not unheard of: Certain 18th- and 19th-century pocket fake watches for sale are known to have featured hand-hammered movement bridges, for instance. The technique is typically achieved through an individual using a hammer and chisel to physically indent the dial – it’s an extremely time-consuming process but the result is downright beautiful, in my opinion.
The lack of knowledge available on Tuscan dials is only further matched by their sheer scarcity – it’s likely that there are only 20 to 25 known Royal Oaks with Tuscan Dials out in the world. And two of the luxury replica watches that will be up for sale at tomorrow’s Phillips Royal Oak 50th anniversary thematic auction are particularly rare.
First there’s lot 10, a time-only ref.14802PT “Jubilee” Royal Oak that was crafted for the 20th anniversary of the Royal Oak. It’s one of very few, if not the only, examples of the Tuscan Dial being used in non-complicated super clone watches wholesale store, and the comprehensive finish of the hammered decoration is almost overwhelming in its three-dimensional qualities. I was able to look over the dial for a few moments with a loupe and the quality of the finish almost resembles ocean waves crashing against one another.
I’ve admittedly spent a lot of time this week talking about cheap replica Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watches and the catalog that Phillips put together, and while the A2 is still the historical highlight for me, if I was to walk away from the auction with one watch, I think it would have to be this one. It looks like I’m not alone in that regard – Phillips has the estimate for lot 10 set at CHF 250,000 – 500,000.
The second Tuscan dial example in the Phillips sale comes is lot 24, and it might be even rarer than the time-only Tuscan dial. It’s a 1992 Perpetual Calendar ref. 25654BA in 18k yellow gold, the only known example of AP encasing a Tuscan dial in a non-white metal (i.e., white gold or platinum) watch. And not only is the case yellow gold, but the lettering, accents, and hands on the dial are all a matching gilt shade. The contrast between the yellow gold case and the rich shade of blue used for the Tuscan dial here is just wonderful, a resplendent combination that stands out for both its beauty and uniqueness. The estimate here lands between CHF 100,00 and 200,000.
Remarkably, with all the other sales happening over the next week, not a single other auction house has another Tuscan dial Royal Oak listed. I think that speaks to the absolute rarity, beauty, and mystery of these fake watches paypal.