Watch Paparazzi

Rapper Gims spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Gims, the Congolese-French rapper and former frontman of Sexion d'Assaut, was recently photographed wearing one of Audemars Piguet's most complex and visually striking Royal Oak variants — the Double Balance Wheel Openworked in white gold with a diamond-set bezel, reference 15412BC.Z. The piece stands out even within a lineup that rarely plays it safe.

The Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked ref. 15412BC.Z is built around calibre 3132, a manually wound skeleton movement that takes the standard Royal Oak architecture and strips it to its structural bones. The double balance wheel complication — developed in-house at Le Brassus — uses two linked balance wheels oscillating in parallel to cancel out positional errors and thermal variations, improving chronometric performance without adding a tourbillon. The result is a movement that earns its display. The 41mm white gold case carries AP's signature eight-sided bezel, here set with 32 baguette-cut diamonds, a configuration reserved exclusively for Audemars Piguet boutiques.

From a collector standpoint, the 15412BC reference occupies a precise niche: it is technically serious enough to satisfy movement purists, visually dramatic enough to attract a broader audience, and scarce enough — owing to its boutique-only distribution — to command genuine secondary-market attention. The openworked Royal Oak lineage traces back to limited anniversary editions before becoming a permanent catalogue fixture, and the double balance wheel complication elevates it well above standard skeletonized dress watches.

Gims has built a reputation as one of France's most commercially successful artists, and his watch choices have consistently reflected a taste for high-complications rather than simple statement pieces. The 15412BC.Z sits comfortably in that framework — it reads as jewellery at a glance but rewards closer inspection with legitimate mechanical substance.

As a boutique exclusive in white gold with diamond setting, the 15412BC.Z carries a retail price in the region of $175,000 USD. On the grey market, strong demand for openworked Royal Oaks and the relative scarcity of the diamond bezel configuration have pushed values higher, with examples trading well above list price. For collectors tracking AP's most wearable complications, this reference remains a benchmark.