Royal Queen Letizia of Spain spotted wearing a Audemars Piguet

A 2007 photograph of Queen Letizia of Spain captures her wearing a compact, two-tone vintage Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, reference SA66131 — a discreet but telling choice for a woman then still finding her footing in one of Europe's oldest royal families.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak SA66131 is a 26mm ladies' quartz model cased in a combination of 18k yellow gold and stainless steel, fitted with a grey dial. The two-tone construction follows the alternating brushed-and-polished finishing philosophy that Gerald Genta embedded into the Royal Oak's DNA when he sketched the original design overnight in 1972. At 26mm, this is the smaller ladies' proportion of the Royal Oak family, and the quartz movement — practical, accurate, low-maintenance — was standard issue for this size and era. The eight-bolt octagonal bezel and integrated bracelet remain unmistakably Royal Oak regardless of the calibre inside.

Among collectors, two-tone vintage Royal Oaks occupy a specific and somewhat undervalued niche. The quartz variants have historically traded at a significant discount to automatic references, but their build quality, finishing, and the sheer historical weight of the Royal Oak name have drawn renewed attention. Reference SA66131 represents an accessible entry point into genuine AP Royal Oak ownership, with grey-market prices currently sitting around $4,500 — a fraction of what comparable automatic examples command.

Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano came from a middle-class family in Oviedo and built a career as a broadcast journalist at CNN+ and Televisión Española before her marriage in May 2004 to Felipe, then Prince of Asturias. Her background informs her approach to personal style — consistently polished but rarely ostentatious. Choosing a vintage two-tone AP Royal Oak, rather than a conspicuously grand jewellery watch, reads as entirely consistent with that sensibility.

On the current market, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak SA66131 trades near $4,500 in grey-market channels, making it one of the more attainably priced examples of a manufacture whose modern Royal Oak references routinely carry premiums of two to five times retail. For collectors seeking authentic AP pedigree with wearable proportions, this vintage two-tone reference remains a quietly intelligent acquisition.