Audemars Piguet reaches out to a wider audience with Cactus Jack.
François-Henry Bennahmias has spent his final days as outgoing CEO of Audemars Piguet by continuing to transform AP into the most fashionable watch brand on the planet. With Bennahmias at the helm, Audemars Piguet embarked on a collaboration with Marvel without fearing the brand would lose its respectability, and transformed how watches are unveiled with a virtual star-studded show and concert.
He began opening AP Houses all over the world instead of boutiques, and put Vallée de Joux on the map as a modern architectural hub with the company's own Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet. But that wasn't enough for Bennahmias. In December, the manufacture presented a watch created in partnership with Cactus Jack.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked “Cactus Jack” 41 mm
Cactus Jack is the record label founded by rapper Travis Scott, who's not only famous for his music, but also for his relationship with Kylie Jenner, who he's fathered two children with.
AP and Cactus Jack have jointly released a special version of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked watch, along with a whole exclusive capsule collection, which were unveiled at Audemars Piguet's New York flagship in an event attended by Tom Brady and Kevin Hart. Cactus Jack has already worked with Nike, McDonald's, Sony Playstation and Dior, so the label already knows how to build hype around a new project.
Audemars Piguet has housed the perpetual calendar for Cactus Jack in a case made of brown ceramic (a first in the Royal Oak collection). The watch borrows the logo from the hip-hop artist's brand and his concept: "Utopia is a state of mind". This slogan has been placed around the sapphire crystal caseback, which reveals a view of a cactus-shaped rotor made of 22-carat rose gold.
Availability of this watch is limited to 200 pieces, and another thing that makes it stand out from other perpetual calendars is the typography based on Travis Scott’s hand-drawn model and Cactus Jack's graphics.
The 41-mm case houses Caliber 5135 — a movement which automatically determines the length of months and won't need manual correction until the year 2100. The movement comprising 374 components has a 40-hour power reserve.
This caliber builds on the basis used for the new generation of perpetual calendars introduced by the brand in 2015 as the successor to the ultra-thin engine used by Audemars Piguet in the perpetual calendar since 1978.