Basketball player Danny Green spotted wearing a Audemars Piguet

Danny Green, three-time NBA champion and Los Angeles Lakers guard, was recently spotted wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon — reference 26560IO — a piece that sits at the very top of the Le Brassus manufacture's technical and aesthetic ambitions.

The ref. 26560IO belongs to the Royal Oak Concept family, a line Audemars Piguet launched in 2002 to serve as a laboratory for complications and avant-garde case design beyond the constraints of the classic Royal Oak. Reference 26560IO houses calibre 2935, an in-house manually wound movement delivering a flying tourbillon, a GMT second time zone, and a power-reserve indicator, all visible through an open-worked dial architecture that reads more like an engineering schematic than a traditional watch face. The case combines sandblasted forged carbon with grade 5 titanium, keeping the 44mm diameter surprisingly light on the wrist while projecting an unmistakable presence. Sapphire crystals front and back ensure the movement remains on display at all times.

Within the collector community, the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon occupies a specific niche: it is the piece for the buyer who finds the standard Royal Oak Tourbillon too conservative but still demands full manufacture credibility. The open-worked, multi-layered dial bridges haute horlogerie and contemporary design in a way few references from any brand manage convincingly. Production volumes remain tightly controlled, making secondary-market availability genuinely limited rather than artificially so.

Green's watch wardrobe has previously leaned toward statement-making, technically serious pieces, and the 26560IO fits that profile precisely. NBA athletes have driven significant demand for high-complication AP references over the past decade, but the Concept line — with its specialist appeal and steep entry point — tends to attract players with a deeper engagement with horology rather than those chasing visibility alone.

At a UK list price of approximately £180,000, the Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon ref. 26560IO is priced well above its Royal Oak Offshore tourbillon siblings. On the grey market, strong demand and constrained supply have kept transaction prices at or above retail, with little of the discounting seen on more readily available AP references. For collectors, acquisition through authorised channels remains the preferred — and often the only — route.