Watch Paparazzi

Rapper Eminem spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Eminem has never been a rapper who wears watches for appearances alone — his wrist game tends toward the technically serious, and a recent sighting confirms that instinct. The Detroit MC was spotted wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Skeleton in 18k yellow gold, reference 25829OR, a watch that demands more than passing attention from anyone who knows what they're looking at.

The ref. 25829OR is built around Calibre 2120/2800, a self-winding movement that integrates a perpetual calendar module — tracking day, date, month, and leap year — with a fully skeletonized architecture. At just 3.05mm thick, the base ebauche is one of the thinnest automatic perpetual calendar movements ever made, a feat of miniaturized engineering that AP has refined over decades. The yellow gold case measures 39mm, fitted with the unmistakable integrated bracelet that Gerald Genta sketched on a napkin in 1972. The tapisserie-patterned bridges visible through the skeletonized dial echo the Royal Oak's original guilloche dial aesthetic while exposing the perpetual calendar's beating heart.

Among collectors, the skeletonized Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar occupies rarefied territory. The 25829OR predates Audemars Piguet's more recent perpetual calendar references and carries genuine vintage AP credibility — it's a watch that serious horology collectors seek out rather than stumble upon. The combination of yellow gold, skeleton execution, and perpetual calendar complication in a single integrated-bracelet package is a configuration AP has never made easy to acquire.

Eminem's taste in watches has long leaned toward AP. The rapper has been photographed with multiple Royal Oak references over the years, demonstrating a collector's preference for the brand rather than a stylist's impulse pick. Wearing this particular reference suggests genuine knowledge of what the 25829OR represents within the Royal Oak lineage.

At a UK list price of approximately £90,000, the 25829OR was never an entry-level proposition. On the secondary market, yellow gold skeletonized Royal Oak perpetual calendars from this generation command strong premiums among specialist collectors, with grey market valuations frequently exceeding retail depending on condition and provenance. This is not a watch that sits quietly on a shelf.