Audemars Piguet and Kaws have created the Royal Oak Idea watch we did not know we would have liked

With new CEO Ilaria Resta on the helm of Audemars Piguet, the watch group has been holding its breath for the subsequent restricted Royal Oak Idea. That is Audemars Piguet’s uncommon wrist-worn experimental lab, this time subverted by the artistic aptitude of Brooklyn-based artist Kaws.

Audemars Piguet has embraced popular culture with wild enthusiasm for the final decade, collaborating with larger-than-life gamers together with basketball superstars and hip-hop royalty who’ve embraced the looks of Spider-Man and Black Panther inside the octagonal chunk of the Idea. Now, it is the flip of the artist.

Kaws, a.okay.a Brina Donnelly, has been a power to reckon with after rising to fame within the Nineties with graffiti paintings that rocket-propelled him onto the pop artwork scene. Donnelly’s toy creations, particularly the ‘Companion’, with its subverted Mickey Mouse skull-and-crossbones aesthetic, have turn into a powerful trademark, however that is his first watch model collab.

Inside the bombastic form of the faceted futurism of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Idea Tourbillon, Kaws’ ‘Companion’ seems trapped behind the sapphire crystal. It’s a powerful monochrome picture solely strengthened by the model’s new motion design, which is bereft of watch palms. This time, it exhibits largely irrelevant time by way of peripheral indicators on the rim of the dial.

The small indicators are titanium hour and minute palms, lumed and set on roller-guided gear wheels. However the star of the wrist present is the cartoon-skull face of ‘Companion’ along with his face and palms pressed in opposition to the crystal, simply above a tantalising tourbillon. The Idea case’s sturdy modernity is barely enlarged in comparison with the Spiderman and Black Panther variations, boasting a multi-faceted titanium case of 43mm. The Audemars Piguet x Kaws Royal Oak Idea Tourbillon ‘Companion’ is restricted to 250 items and retails at CHF 200,000.