.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This rare and important highly complicated “Tradition d'Excellence No. 1” is the first model created for the Tradition of Excellence or “Cabinet” collection started in 2000. It is one of Audemars Piguet’s finest and most accomplished modern wristwatches and housed in a large 43 mm. platinum Jules Audemars case. This first watch from the Tradition d’Excellence series is the most difficult to obtain and is almost never seen at auction. These watches were originally never available to buy in public only being released to a select band of AP’s best clients who had contracted to buy the entire series.
To date, the Tradition d’Excellence collection consists of five individual models with only 20 examples of each manufactured, all cased in platinum and fitted with a one minute tourbillon regulator, the present watch being the first model of the series. Each of the five different watches focuses on a particular horological feature, in the present watch that feature is a split seconds chronograph in addition of course to the two-hammer minute repeater.
The “Chronographe Rattrapante” or split seconds chronograph can be used either to time a single event or two events that begin simultaneously but do not necessarily end together. One pusher controls the split seconds function only, the other button controls the chronograph start/stop and reset functions.
Audemars Piguet introduced the Tradition of Excellence collection in 2000 to pay tribute to the craftsmanship of the original founders of Audemars Piguet, masters in the art of producing complicated timepieces. The five watches from Tradition of Excellence collection are now amongst the most respected and desirable Audemars Piguet watches of the modern era.
For an example of the Tradition d’Excellence No. 2, please see Lot 2433 in this sale.
To date, the Tradition d’Excellence collection consists of five individual models with only 20 examples of each manufactured, all cased in platinum and fitted with a one minute tourbillon regulator, the present watch being the first model of the series. Each of the five different watches focuses on a particular horological feature, in the present watch that feature is a split seconds chronograph in addition of course to the two-hammer minute repeater.
The “Chronographe Rattrapante” or split seconds chronograph can be used either to time a single event or two events that begin simultaneously but do not necessarily end together. One pusher controls the split seconds function only, the other button controls the chronograph start/stop and reset functions.
Audemars Piguet introduced the Tradition of Excellence collection in 2000 to pay tribute to the craftsmanship of the original founders of Audemars Piguet, masters in the art of producing complicated timepieces. The five watches from Tradition of Excellence collection are now amongst the most respected and desirable Audemars Piguet watches of the modern era.
For an example of the Tradition d’Excellence No. 2, please see Lot 2433 in this sale.