Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Thierry Henry spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Thierry Henry, the former Arsenal and France striker widely regarded as one of the greatest forwards in football history, was recently spotted wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept reference 26265FO — a watch so scarce that fewer people own one than have walked on the moon. With a production run strictly limited to five pieces, the 26265FO ranks among the most exclusive references AP has ever released under the Royal Oak Concept banner.

The Royal Oak Concept 26265FO is built around Audemars Piguet's in-house calibre 2936, a hand-wound movement delivering a flying tourbillon at six o'clock paired with a column-wheel chronograph — a technical pairing that demands exceptional movement architecture given the spatial constraints of the 44mm case. Power reserve stands at approximately 70 hours, and the entire dial side is skeletonised, exposing the movement's intricate finishing in full. The case material is forged carbon fibre treated in a striking yellow colourway, a process that involves compressing carbon strands under extreme heat and pressure before the distinctive tint is introduced — no two cases display an identical fibre pattern.

The Royal Oak Concept line was introduced in 2002 as AP's experimental laboratory, a platform deliberately set apart from the classic Royal Oak to explore avant-garde materials and complications without commercial compromise. The 26265FO represents that philosophy at its most concentrated: an ultra-limited, technically demanding piece that exists more as wearable art than production watch. Among collectors, any Royal Oak Concept with a sub-ten-piece production run commands near-mythological status, and the yellow forged carbon execution has drawn consistent attention since its reveal.

Henry has been an Audemars Piguet friend and collector for years, appearing at AP events and building a collection that spans multiple Royal Oak references. His choice to wear the 26265FO publicly — rather than reserve it for a safe — speaks to a collector's confidence in the piece and a genuine affinity for the brand's more daring output.

With a UK list price of approximately £280,000, the 26265FO already occupies rarefied retail territory. On the secondary market, the combination of a five-piece limitation and a high-profile ownership provenance pushes grey-market valuations considerably beyond that figure, with demand consistently outpacing the near-zero supply.