Watch Paparazzi

Basketball player Kyle Lowry spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Courtside at a Miami Heat game, Kyle Lowry kept his eyes on the action — but it was the ref. 26521OR on his wrist that demanded attention from watch observers in the arena. The six-time NBA All-Star, who joined the Heat in 2021, has developed a well-documented appetite for serious horology, and this sighting confirms he is shopping at the very top of the Audemars Piguet catalogue.

The Royal Oak Tourbillon Extra-Thin ref. 26521OR is built around the calibre 2924, a manually wound, skeletonised flying tourbillon movement measuring just 4.46mm in thickness — a figure that underscores AP's obsession with ultra-thin architecture in the Royal Oak line. Beating at 18,000 vph (2.5Hz), the movement offers a 65-hour power reserve and is finished to full manufacture standard, with hand-chamfered bridges and a layout that allows the tourbillon cage to perform its one-minute rotation in full view. The 41mm rose gold case carries the signature integrated bracelet Gerald Genta penned in 1972, here executed in 18K rose gold throughout.

What separates Lowry's specific example from the standard 26521OR is the factory gem-set bezel: 32 baguette-cut sapphires set flush around the octagonal bezel by AP's in-house stone-setting atelier in Le Brassus. Baguette setting at this scale demands that each stone be individually calibrated to follow the geometry of Genta's chamfered bezel — a process that can consume more hours than assembling the movement itself. The result is a watch that sits at the intersection of complication watchmaking and high jewellery.

Lowry has been photographed in notable AP and Patek Philippe pieces before, signalling a collector approach rather than simple brand affiliation. Choosing a skeletonised tourbillon with baguette stones for a public sporting event is a confident move — this is not a watch that disappears into the background.

At a list price of approximately $185,000, the ref. 26521OR already sits in rarefied territory. On the grey market, demand for gem-set Royal Oak complications has pushed current valuations toward $550,000 — nearly three times retail — reflecting both the scarcity of factory stone-set examples and sustained global appetite for AP's most complex Royal Oak references.