Watch Paparazzi

Artist Brian Donnelly spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Brian Donnelly — the Brooklyn-born artist and designer the world knows as KAWS — was recently spotted on the wrist with one of Audemars Piguet's most technically demanding references: the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked in black ceramic, ref. 26585CE. For an artist whose work commands museum walls and auction records simultaneously, the choice of timepiece is entirely coherent.

The 26585CE is built around a 41mm case and integrated bracelet machined entirely from black ceramic — a material that is approximately seven times harder than stainless steel, rendering it virtually impervious to everyday scratching. That resilience, however, comes at a manufacturing cost: where a standard steel Royal Oak bracelet requires roughly six hours to finish, polish, and assemble, the ceramic equivalent demands 30 hours of meticulous hand-work. The result is a surface that holds its alternating brushed and polished finish indefinitely, with none of the micro-scratches that accumulate on metal over time.

Powering the watch is Calibre 26586, a self-winding skeletonized movement offering perpetual calendar functionality — displaying date, day, month, leap year, and moon phase — through an openworked dial that exposes the full mechanical architecture beneath. The movement operates at 3.5Hz (25,200 vph) with a 40-hour power reserve. Achieving legibility through a skeletonized perpetual calendar layout is itself a significant dial-engineering challenge, one AP's movement architects have handled with characteristic restraint.

Among collectors, the black ceramic Royal Oak occupies a specific and coveted position. Ceramic Royal Oaks in any complication are produced in limited numbers, and the perpetual calendar openworked variant sits at the apex of the reference family's complexity. The material's unforgiving nature during machining keeps supply tight, and secondary market demand reflects that scarcity consistently.

KAWS has long demonstrated genuine horological taste, gravitating toward pieces with technical substance rather than decorative flash. The 26585CE retails at approximately $154,000, with grey-market values tracking firmly above list given constrained availability. On KAWS's wrist, it reads less as a status signal and more as a working artist's appreciation for an object where every visible surface is the product of extraordinary labor.