The one I'd actually save for
By Priya Nair, Singapore ·
In 1972 Gérald Genta drew a steel watch that cost more than many gold ones, and the industry has been copying his homework ever since. The 16202 is the closest AP will currently sell you to that original idea, and of all the Royal Oaks it's the one I covet.
The numbers explain why. 39 mm across, 8.1 mm thick. Next to the 41 mm 15510 it looks almost delicate, and that thinness changes how the integrated bracelet behaves: the whole thing lies down on the wrist like fine chain mail instead of perching. Lug width is still 24 mm, so you keep the broad shoulders, but in profile it's as flat as a cigarette case. Under a blazer sleeve, or with a thin gold bangle stacked beside it, the proportions just work.
Calibre 7121 arrived with this generation, replacing the 2121 that everyone romanticised, and brings 55 hours of reserve. Marco could tell you far more about its architecture than I can. I care that it's thin, and that the open caseback gives you something worth looking at when you take it off at night.
Now the catch, or rather the catches, because there are several. 50 m of water resistance is fine for washing your hands, less fine for a Phuket holiday where you forget it's on. At roughly 37,000 to 39,000 dollars it's about the most expensive steel time-and-date watch from a major house, and the list price is close to irrelevant because the boutique decides who gets one. Expect to be asked what else you've bought. Expect to buy something else.
Resale? Jumbos have a decades-long record of holding up better than almost anything in steel. I work in private banking, so I've learned never to promise returns. But if one watch on my list is going to be worth more than you paid in ten years, this is my pick.