Jewellery first, watch second, and that's fine
By Priya Nair, Singapore ยท
Let's be honest about what this is: a gold bracelet that happens to tell the time.
At 23 mm and 7 mm thick, the Mini Royal Oak is about the size of a large coin, and the frosted finish (the hammered gold texture that began with AP's collaboration with jeweller Carolina Bucci) sparkles without a single stone. The dial is gold too, so the whole thing glows as one piece. It's quartz, which at this size is the right call. Nobody wants to wind a 23 mm watch that lives in the jewellery box between parties.
Around 40,000 to 42,000 dollars is a lot for quartz, obviously, and you're paying for the gold, the frosting and the octagon in roughly that order. My real reservation is legibility. Gold hands on a gold dial this small means reading the time at a dim bar takes a tilt and a squint. Buy it if you'd otherwise spend this on a gold bangle from a jeweller. Don't buy it as your only watch.