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Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Sachin Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest batsman in cricket history, was recently spotted wearing the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in black ceramic, reference 26579CE — a watch that demands as much attention on the wrist as Tendulkar himself commands at a crease.

The 26579CE is built around a 41mm black ceramic case, paired with an integrated black ceramic bracelet — a construction that sounds straightforward but is anything but. Ceramic at this scale, shaped into the Royal Oak's iconic octagonal bezel with its eight exposed screws, requires sintering and grinding processes that push manufacturing tolerances to their limits. AP uses zirconium oxide ceramic here, producing a surface that is virtually scratch-resistant and maintains its deep, matte-satin finish indefinitely. The dial echoes the case: a dark tapisserie-patterned surface carries the perpetual calendar display across sub-dials and apertures indicating date, day, month, moon phase, and leap year — all without requiring manual correction until 2100.

The movement powering the 26579CE is Calibre 5134, a self-winding manufacture movement beating at 19,800 vph with a 40-hour power reserve. It carries a column-wheel perpetual calendar mechanism, a complication AP has refined across decades in the Royal Oak family. The perpetual calendar variant of the Royal Oak dates to 1984, when AP introduced it as one of the first perpetual calendars in a sports watch context — a genuine milestone in horological history.

For collectors, the black ceramic Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar occupies a distinct niche. It offers the intellectual gravitas of a grand complication with the visual drama of an all-black execution, without leaning on precious metal ostentation. It attracts buyers who want depth over flash — a profile that fits Tendulkar's understated but discerning watch sensibility. The cricket legend has previously been associated with AP and other top-tier maisons, and this sighting reinforces his position as one of sport's more serious horological collectors.

At a UK list price of approximately £75,000, the 26579CE sits firmly in upper-tier AP territory. On the secondary market, black ceramic Royal Oak complications have held value consistently, with grey-market premiums reflecting sustained demand and limited production allocations.