Audemars Piguet 26510ST.OO.1220ST.01

Audemars Piguet

Ref. 26510ST.OO.1220ST.01

Watch n° 234 for number of VIPs spotted with this watch
Audemars Piguet n° 42 for number of VIPs spotted with this watch
Number of VIPs spotted with this watch: 4
Number of total spotted: 4
Preferred VIP category: footballer (1 VIP)
List price: £88,000
Market price: €100.000

The Audemars Piguet 26510ST.OO.1220ST.01 has turned up on a notably varied group of public figures: Chinese retail and e-commerce billionaire Zhang Jindong, Dutch footballer Nigel De Jong, heavyweight boxing world champion Anthony Joshua, and British rapper Tinnie Tempah. That particular cross-section — a Forbes-listed entrepreneur with stakes in Serie A football, a combative midfield professional who played at the highest club and international level, one of the most recognisable names in world boxing, and a chart-topping recording artist — says something clear about where this reference sits. It is not a watch that clusters around one scene or one nationality. It travels across industries and continents, picked up by people who are used to operating at the top of very different fields.

Demand for the 26510ST.OO.1220ST.01 consistently outpaces supply. Audemars Piguet produces the Royal Oak Tourbillon Extra-Thin in deliberately limited numbers, and the stainless steel version in particular — steel being the most coveted material in the Royal Oak family since Gerald Genta's original 1972 design — rarely surfaces through authorised dealer channels without a prior client relationship. Retail pricing for this reference has sat in the region of CHF 95,000 to CHF 110,000 depending on market, but on the secondary market it has traded well above that figure, reflecting the combination of a complicated movement, a scarce allocation, and sustained celebrity visibility. Buyers without an existing AP relationship have typically found the grey market their only realistic route to acquisition.

The 26510ST.OO.1220ST.01 houses the manually wound Calibre 2924 flying tourbillon, measuring just 4.46mm thick — making it one of the slimmest tourbillon movements Audemars Piguet produces within the Royal Oak line. Zhang Jindong's high-profile sightings helped bring the reference to wider attention in Asia, while Joshua and Tinnie Tempah introduced it to audiences well beyond the traditional watch-collecting world.