Worn & Wound
Opinion: The Culture of the Royal Oak Has Overshadowed the Watch Itself
I can remember the exact moment I realized that Audemars Piguet was not the brand for me: I was listening to an episode of Hodinkee Radio in early 2019 featuring an interview with then current AP CEO François-Henry Bennahmias during which he boasted that he does not read books. For whatever skills Bennahmias has as an executive, and whatever objectively nice qualities come through in the watches made under his tenure with the brand, something about this statement immediately turned me off. In the parlance of 2025, you’d say it gave me “the ick.” Over the last few years, I’ve thought about this moment a lot as integrated bracelet sports watch mania has waxed and waned, and my own taste has solidified somewhat. Back in 2019, my exposure to Royal Oaks was fairly limited. I basically knew what watch media and the burgeoning watch collector’s scene on Instagram told me. And the narrative, by and large, was that these were the crème de la crème of the high end, a watch that every collector should strive to own. In those days, it really was that simple: there were a handful of watches from big brands that seemed to be on everyone’s hit list at one time or another. The Submariner, the Speedmaster, the Royal Oak. It was drilled into my head, and all of our heads, that watches like this – the icons – were worthy of our universal devotion. I eventually owned both a Speedmaster and a Submariner. Both of which, I’d eventually realize, were not for me for a vari...
