Audemars Piguet ref. 5063 Dress Watch, 'Cioccolatone'

Dealer description — Oliver & Clarke

The year 1972 was the advent of what is undeniably Audemars Piguet's most famous, significant, and yes, iconic line of watches, the Royal Oak. It was also the year that the 'high-end dress watch' would forever change. Prior to 1972, ultra-thin and design-focused precious metal watches represented the pinnacle of the genre, not what appears to be an industrial-styled stainless steel sports watch with a bracelet. While the brand never stopped producing traditional dress watches, per-se, production of their new golden goose would dominate the rest of the lineup. And this is after considering that prior to the Royal Oak, AP made far fewer watches to start with... The piece that we have here is one of those pre-Royal Oak era watches. Known to collectors as a 'Cioccolatone' for its unique shape, this 'stepped' case yellow gold dress watch dates to circa the early 1960s and comes in at approximately 29mm x 33mm. It's unique rounded-rectangular case retains defined bevels and factory finishing throughout and shows just light signs of wear for its age. It features a manually-wound movement within and is operated by a recessed crown at 3 o'clock. Inside, the 'brushed' silver dial within has a applied faceted 'pencil' indices, a 'crosshair' subsidiary seconds register on the bottom half of the dial, and a correct 'pencil' handset to match. Additionally, the dial features a second signature on the top half of the dial that reads "Gübelin" — a famed retailer in Lucerne, Switzerland. This then, is a representation of a bygone era not just for Audemars Piguet, but for what a high-end dress watch used to be. Only in the last few years have collectors and enthusiasts alike started to pay a bit more attention to pieces like these and, we think, its long overdue.