What does AP mean for watches?

For watches, AP usually means that a watch was produced by the Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet. Jules Louis Audemars (1851–1918) and Edward Auguste Piguet (1853–1919), both natives of the Vallée de Joux region in Switzerland, were already deeply entrenched in the world of watchmaking when they joined forces to form a new house of horology near the end of the 19th century. Their company's first major milestone came in 1892, when it created the world’s first minute-repeating movement for a wristwatch. That was soon followed in 1899 with the Universelle pocket watch, a masterpiece of horology that boasted a perpetual calendar, minute repeater, alarm and chronograph with jumping seconds. Nearly a century later, the quartz crisis of the 1970s left many watchmakers in the lurch. Audemars and Piguet found a creative solution, tapping the Geneva-born Gérald Genta to conceive the first-ever luxury watch in stainless steel. Launched in 1972, the Royal Oak, with its octagonal face and integrated bracelet, would come to define the look of Audemars Piguet and revolutionize the luxury wristwatch industry, setting a standard that continues to this day. Explore a selection of Audemars Piguet watches on 1stDibs.