Watch Paparazzi

Entrepreneur Steven Zhang spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Steven Zhang, chairman of Serie A giants FC Inter Milan, was recently photographed by club photographer Claudio Villa wearing one of Audemars Piguet's most technically demanding creations: the Royal Oak Tourbillon Chronograph Openworked in black ceramic, reference 26343CE.OO.1247CE.01. The sighting offers a rare real-world look at a watch that almost never leaves private collections.

The ref. 26343CE is built around calibre 2933, a manual-winding movement that integrates a column-wheel chronograph, a flying tourbillon, and full skeletonization within the Royal Oak's iconic octagonal case. Every bridge and plate is individually beveled and anglaged by hand — a process that, on an openworked movement, requires vastly more labor than on a solid dial. The black ceramic case measures 41mm and is paired with an integrated black ceramic bracelet, with the ceramic machined to tolerances that rival those of aerospace components. The whole construction weighs dramatically less than a comparable steel or gold version, yet ranks among the hardest materials AP has ever worked with at this scale.

The Royal Oak Tourbillon Chronograph Openworked occupies the apex of the Royal Oak family's complication hierarchy. Ceramic versions are far rarer than their steel or gold counterparts, and limiting production to just 100 pieces globally transforms the ref. 26343CE from a luxury watch into a genuine collector's artifact. Its combination of complications — flying tourbillon, chronograph, open dial — executed inside a sports-luxury icon places it in a very small category of watches that are simultaneously technically serious and aesthetically spectacular.

Zhang, whose family founded the Suning Commerce Group, has long been known in watch circles for gravitating toward high-complication timepieces from the grande maison tier. Wearing the 26343CE pitchside is a statement about both taste and access: this watch does not appear at retail, and acquiring one requires a well-established relationship with the manufacture.

At CHF 310,000 list — roughly $340,000 USD at current exchange — the Royal Oak Tourbillon Chronograph Openworked ref. 26343CE commands significant premiums on the secondary market given its 100-piece allocation. Grey-market activity is limited precisely because so few owners are willing to part with examples, which itself signals long-term collector desirability.