Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, one of the world’s most coveted best replica watches, celebrates its 50th birthday this year with a flurry of special editions. The late Gérald Genta’s groundbreaking design, with its bolted octagonal bezel and integrated steel bracelet, succeeded in creating the luxury sports watch category that dominates the market today. “I love iconic shapes and the Royal Oak is not only iconic but genderless, which I love,” says Serena Williams, who frequently sports a Royal Oak, both on and off court.
She is just one of a legion of celebrity fans of both sexes including Jay Z, Karl Lagerfeld and Ashley Olsen, yet one little celebrated fact is the role that women have played in the 1:1 AAA fake watches’ success over the years.
Aside from Genta, no one, perhaps, has had more influence on the cheap US replica Audemas Piguet Royal Oak watches’ identity than Jacqueline Dimier. She is the first female watch designer of note in what was then – and arguably still is – a predominantly masculine world. She remembers the impact of Genta’s creation when it was unveiled in 1972. “The Royal Oak completely broke the codes of the time,” she says. “Firstly, because it was made of steel rather than gold, and secondly because it had visible screws on the bezel. These details shaped its image and revolutionised watchmaking.”
Dimier joined high quality Audemars Piguet copy watches in 1975 and was tasked with creating the Royal Oak’s first female version. The challenge was that its clean lines and industrial looks were a world away from the fancy gem trimmings and dial shapes that dominated women’s watchmaking at the time. “It was fashionable to wear small, very feminine watches,” she says. But succeed she did, reducing both the movement and the watch’s overall size to more wearable proportions. Dimier went on to become the brand’s head of design for almost 25 years, shaping the Royal Oak to become the perfect replica watches the world knows and loves today. “She was a genius at what she did,” says journalist and watch expert Bill Prince.
Jasmine Audemars is the great-granddaughter of Jules Louis Audemars, who founded Audemars Piguet in 1875. She grew up surrounded by super clone watches for sale and has been chair of the family-owned company’s board since 1992, a period in which the Royal Oak has cemented its cult status.
And then there’s jewellery designer Carolina Bucci, who heralded a new era in 2016 when she collaborated with Audemars Piguet replica watches online site on the Royal Oak Frosted Gold. It transformed the famous bracelet into a version that shimmered with Bucci’s signature Florentine technique, in which the metal is beaten by hand with a diamond-tipped tool to create a tactile, sparkly finish. “We adore what Carolina did. Her treatment of the metal made it more feminine,” says Evelyne Genta, wife and business partner of Gerald Genta, who together with her daughter Alexia, continues his legacy today with a foundation to support up-and-coming design talent.
While the Frosted Gold was designed with women in mind, it quickly became a hit with men too. For Bucci, the Swiss movements Audemars Piguet Royal Oak fake watches’ ability to take on different guises over the years and yet retain its core identity is down to the strength of its design. “The Royal Oak pushed the boundaries of what steel and hand finishing could do,” she says. “It’s a testament to great design and it’s as relevant and fresh today as when Genta first designed it 50 years ago.”
