Watch Paparazzi

Politician Marzouq Al Ghanim spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Marzouq Al Ghanim, Speaker of Kuwait's National Assembly and one of the Gulf region's most recognisable political figures, was recently spotted wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked in stainless steel — a timepiece that stands as a genuine showcase of haute horlogerie engineering dressed in the Royal Oak's iconic sporting aesthetic.

The watch centres on the Calibre 3132, AP's in-house automatic movement featuring the double balance wheel — a patented regulating system that pairs two oscillating masses on the same axis to neutralise positional errors and improve chronometric consistency. The movement beats at 3Hz (21,600 vph) and delivers a 45-hour power reserve. At 41mm in brushed and polished stainless steel with an integrated bracelet, the case retains the classic Royal Oak silhouette conceived by Gérald Genta in 1972, while the fully openworked dial replaces every element of conventional finishing with an unobstructed view into the movement's architecture.

First introduced as the Royal Oak Skeleton and later refined into the Double Balance Wheel variant, this reference represents the natural evolution of AP's openworking tradition — one that dates back decades but reached new technical heights with the dual-regulator concept. The skeletonisation is executed in-house at Le Brassus, requiring hundreds of additional hours of hand-finishing on bridges and plates that are exposed on both sides.

For collectors, the Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked occupies a compelling position: it delivers movement exposure that rivals dedicated complications, yet the 3132 base ensures robustness and serviceability. The stainless steel configuration is the most sought-after, consistently outperforming its listed retail in secondary markets — a reflection of both scarcity and sustained demand from Gulf-region collectors in particular.

Al Ghanim's choice of this reference at a formal institutional setting speaks to a broader shift in how luxury timepieces are perceived in diplomatic and political circles across the Middle East — not as ostentation, but as informed personal expression. At a current grey-market valuation well above retail, this sighting confirms the Royal Oak Openworked's position as both a horological statement and a hard asset.