Audemars Piguet Watch Code 11.59 Selfwinding 15210BC.OO.A002CR.01

Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 caused controversy when it launched in 2019 - but sales are up 100% this year, and the company is ambitious about it.

Not so long ago, watch criticism was a moderate business. Watch magazines, hardly plural, sit in the hobby section of newsstands, somewhere between a railroad modeler and a utility boat owner. There are online forums for collectors. all is well. Back in those days, I once asked the editor of a watch magazine why his magazine never spoke ill of watches. "It has no value to our audience," he replied.

He was right. Watch magazines were—and are—escapism. Unlike a car or a blender, a watch won't get you killed or set your house on fire. There's no need to say that if you don't like watches. As an edit, you just ignored it.

The absence of a watch, or at least no response to it, is a testament to how much has changed over the past decade, like Audemars Piguet's Code 11.59. It was launched last year and is reminiscent of Apple's launch event. Bold, disruptive, everywhere.

Watches are big news. From a design perspective, this requires some thought. It's round and octagonal at the same time; classic from the bird's eye view, edgy from the side. It's also very detailed, right down to the gold logo, and it's produced using a chemical process called galvanic growth, a bit like 3-D printing (only this one got its own section during launch). At its debut, there were 13 models and 6 movements, 3 of which were brand new. Geneva Airport is painted in its pink forest campaign artwork, as are newspapers and magazines around the world.