Actor Omar Sy spotted wearing a Audemars Piguet

French actor Omar Sy — best known globally for his role as Assane Diop in Netflix's Lupin — was spotted at what appears to be the Audemars Piguet manufacture in Le Brassus, Switzerland, wearing a Royal Oak Double Balancier Squelette in stainless steel. The image, which shows Sy examining a watch movement at a watchmaker's bench surrounded by tools and components, suggests a formal partnership or ambassador visit rather than a casual sighting, placing both man and machine in their most fitting context.

The Royal Oak Double Balancier Squelette references the calibre 2954, a manufacture movement housing two balance wheels linked by a differential gear. This arrangement averages the rate variations caused by different wrist positions, improving precision without resorting to a tourbillon. The movement is fully skeletonized, revealing the architecture of the differential and twin escapements through an open-worked dial framed by AP's iconic octagonal bezel with eight hexagonal screws. The case measures 41mm in stainless steel on an integrated bracelet — the Royal Oak's defining silhouette, originally drawn by Gérald Genta in 1972.

From a collector standpoint, the Double Balancier Squelette occupies a compelling niche: it offers genuine horological substance — a proprietary complication with real engineering merit — within the Royal Oak's most commercially desirable form factor. Unlike tourbillons, the twin-balance architecture is functionally justified rather than decorative, which resonates with technically-minded collectors. The skeletonized execution allows the movement's symmetrical layout to read clearly, making it one of the more legible skeleton dials in the current AP catalogue.

Omar Sy's connection to Audemars Piguet appears to be more than transactional. Being photographed inside the manufacture, handling components, signals the kind of deep-access relationship the brand reserves for genuine ambassadors. Sy's global profile following Lupin — watched by over 70 million households in its first month — makes him an ideal cultural bridge between AP's Swiss heritage and an international audience.

At retail, the Royal Oak Double Balancier Squelette in stainless steel carries a list price in the region of $147,000, though like most desirable AP steel references it trades above retail on the secondary market. Current grey market premiums for this reference remain substantial, reflecting both the complication's prestige and the perennial demand for steel Royal Oaks with serious in-house movements.