Watch Paparazzi

Rapper Tyga spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Tyga was recently spotted wearing one of Audemars Piguet's most extreme technical and aesthetic statements — the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked in all-black ceramic, reference 26585CE. The sighting immediately drew attention from watch collectors, not simply because of the model's striking appearance, but because of just how scarce and market-coveted this particular reference has become.

The 26585CE is built around a 41mm case crafted entirely from black ceramic, a material Audemars Piguet uses sparingly given its exceptional hardness and the complexity of machining it to the Royal Oak's signature bevelled geometry. The movement inside is the calibre 26586, a self-winding openworked perpetual calendar that exposes its skeletonised architecture through the dial side, revealing the perpetual calendar mechanism — moon phase, date, day, month, and leap year indicator — in full view. The bridges and plates are finished with AP's signature Geneva stripes and bevelling, even on components never seen without a loupe. Water resistance is rated to 50 metres.

The Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar has been part of the AP collection since the 1980s, evolving from the original Reference 25657 into successive generations that have each pushed the complexity of what the Royal Oak octagonal case can contain. The all-ceramic, fully openworked iteration takes that lineage to one of its most demanding conclusions. Black ceramic components require individual hand-finishing, as automated polishing risks chipping the material, making each case extraordinarily labour-intensive to produce.

Tyga has built a well-documented collection of serious timepieces over the years, with a clear preference for statement pieces that carry genuine horological substance behind their visual impact. The 26585CE fits that profile precisely — it is not merely decorative. The full ceramic construction, perpetual calendar complication, and openworked movement represent three distinct layers of manufacture complexity.

On the secondary market, the 26585CE has appreciated dramatically beyond its already considerable list price of approximately $115,800. Current grey-market valuations sit around $580,000 — a premium that reflects genuine scarcity, collector demand, and the cost of producing ceramic at this level of finish. For a watch that was never widely available at retail, that multiple is less surprising than it might initially appear.