35 Audemars Piguet Elegant and Sophisticated Round Shaped Manual Winding Wristwatch in Yellow Gold, Bark Finish Champagne Dial and Case, Retailed by Bulgari

Estimate: €8,000 –⁠ 16,000

Material: Yellow Gold
Year: 1970s
Case N°: 27189
Movement N°: 27189
Bracelet: Leather Strap
Dimensions: 32 mm
Signed: Dial, case and movement

The present wristwatch is a truly interesting and beautiful creation which saw the union of efforts of two important brands of watchmaking and fashion and, even more interesting, two brands still owned by the same family that founded them: Audemars Piguet and Bulgari. Audemars Piguet was founded in 1875 in Le Brassus in the Swiss Vallee de Joux by Jules-Louis Audemars, to who was left the technical productions of the luxury timepieces, and Edward-Auguste Piguet who was in charge of the business aspects of the company. At its dawn the brand was devoted to the creation of complicated pocket watches and later specialized in wrist timepieces becoming very popular all over Europe and the whole world. Nowadays the company remains a family business and has not been sold at any point in its history. Similar but slightly different are the origin of the brand Bulgari, one of the oldest italian jewelry houses dating back to 1884, only 9 years later than AP. The founder was Sotirios Voulgaris, who moved from Greece to Italy in 1880 looking for fortune with only 18 cents in his pockets. Thanks to his incredibile ability in working with precious metals he managed to open his own workshop naming it BVLGARI using the classical Latin alphabet, deriving from his surname. Nowadays is considered one of the most important italian fashion brands and is currently headed by Sotirios’s great grandson, Francesco Trapani. In the “70s from the collaboration of these two companies was created this really beautiful wristwatch, perfect mix of the high technology of Audemars and the elevated taste of Bulgari. The yellow gold case is very thin with a lovely bezel fully engraved with a pattern which reminds to the style of the tree bark. Still in very nice and crisp conditions, this watch also presents a champagne dial with a very similar decoration of the one on the bezel: this time the lines are thinner, more delicate and visible only when observed from a closer position. It is also completed with applied yellow gold baton indexes for the quarter minutes/hours, thin hands and the double signature at 12 o’clock (Audemars Piguet) and 6 o’clock (Bulgari). This unusual couple have been able to create a very charming watch worthy of attention.