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Watches & Wonders 2025 is approaching, but AP’s latest releases are here, alongside a new perpetual calendar movement that simplifies horology’s toughest complication!

We’re less than three months in, and 2025 is proving to be a big year for watchmaking. I don’t mean to brag so early on, but we kind of predicted it – You’re welcome! Joking aside, we couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead this year, and Audemars Piguet’s latest releases have set our expectations sky-high. And why wouldn’t they? As a pillar of the watch industry’s ‘Big Three,’ AP already commands attention – but with 2025 marking their 150th anniversary, the stakes are even higher. The pressure has been on to deliver something truly special, both for loyal collectors and for enthusiasts who aspire to own a slice of their illustrious legacy – and deliver they certainly have. Just days ago, the Le Brassus brand unveiled a wave of new releases for the year. While this includes the expected Offshores, Royal Oaks, and Code 11.59 models, AP has gone beyond expectations. Among the highlights is a trio of perpetual calendar timepieces – one Code 11.59 and two Royal Oaks – that look to further solidify the brand’s GOAT status in haute horlogerie.

Perpetual calendars have been part of Audemars Piguet’s lineup ever since the Ref. 5516 debuted in 1955. Despite the complexity of the complication, the brand has continually pushed its boundaries, from integrating it into the Royal Oak in 1984 to introducing the legendary Calibre 5134 in 2015. After a decade of service, however, the Calibre 5134 is making way for the next evolution – AP’s latest step forward in the perpetual calendar’s remarkable journey.

Enter Calibre 7138, the next generation of AP’s perpetual calendar mastery. For the watch nerds out there (myself included), you might find the architecture quite familiar, as the 7138 is built atop the Calibre 7121 base. Introduced in 2022, it runs at 4 Hz/28,800VpH and has a minimum 55-hour power reserve, making it a convenient movement for everyday use. The Cal. 7138 also maintains all the design elements from 2018’s Cal. 5133, first seen Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar RD#2. What truly stands out, however, is its revolutionary and surprisingly convenient approach to the perpetual calendar complication. Blending both their traditional craftsmanship prowess and their ergonomics-forward approach, this new trio of perpetual calendar watches have been outfitted with a correction system that is fully controlled via the crown.

RELATED READING: The Legacy of Iconic Watch Designs: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak – Part Two

If you’re new to this sort of thing, you might think talking about the crown of the watch might be quite inane, but hear me out for a second. For years, perpetual calendar movements have been considered some of the most complex creations in watchmaking. Their purpose goes beyond just keeping track of time, but also monitoring every aspect of it: hours, minutes, date, day, month, and year, all without any electronic or digital assistance. As suggested by their name, perpetual calendars are designed to do this indefinitely. They also account for leap years and automatically adjust for the varying lengths of months – yes, even February – all the way through to the year 2100! The only reason they stop at that point is due to complications with the Gregorian calendar, but that’s an issue Sam delves into further in the article below.

Related Reading: The Art of Complications – The Perpetual Calendar

The biggest issue with perpetual calendars, as masterfully crafted as they are, is that they are a massive pain in the you-know-what to set. Typically, this involves the use of four hidden pushers embedded in the flanks of the watch case, activated by a small tool that can reach and depress them. While it’s effective, it’s also slow and outdated, with many collectors typically resigning their watches back into the hands of their respective manufacturers to correct for them. This is why the crown-based correction system is such a significant development, as even watchmakers as prestigious as Audemars Piguet could not escape such a significant technological fallacy – that is until they did.

The crown system of the Cal. 7138 now features four positions, with the first position winding the watch, of course! The second position contains two functions: rotating the crown forward sets the date clockwise, while the month and leap year indicators adjust in the opposite direction. The third position adjusts the time either way, whilst the ‘fourth’ position allows the user to set the day and week (clockwise) and adjust the moon phase (counter-clockwise.) Take note, however, that the ‘fourth’ position is the exact same as the second, but is activated when you push the crown back in from position three instead of pulling out once again. Despite the simplistic and foolproof system, however, lies a complex mechanism driven by an innovative lever and wandering wheel system, interacting with calendar wheels in positions two and ‘four.’

Despite the added complexity, Audemars Piguet has worked tirelessly to ensure that the layout of the Cal. 7138 remains both legible and symmetric. This starts by incorporating a European-style date display into the dial, presenting the date, day, and month registers in a clockwise direction. To all the Americans out there reading this, I’m afraid you’ll just have to get used to it – but in time, you’ll realise this format makes a lot more sense. The Cal. 7138 also comes with a week-of-the-year indicator along the inner periphery of the bezel. However, Audemars Piguet has revised the design to allay confusion regarding its function.

Before the release of this new movement, the weeks were numbered 1 to 52, with the 52nd week positioned at 12 o’clock. However, this may have puzzled wearers of the previous perpetual calendar models as the general assumption would be that the 12 o’clock should represent the beginning of the new year. Thus, while the week indicator remains, AP has reworked the display so that week 1 appears at 12 o’clock instead of week 52. Similarly, ‘Monday’ and ‘1’ are aligned at 12 o’clock in their respective sub-dials to mark the start of the week and the first day of the month. The 12 o’clock date wheel has also been improved, using a date wheel with 31 custom-shaped teeth that adapt to the width of each abbreviated month. Additionally, a 24-hour indicator has been added inside the day sub-dial at 9 o’clock for better symmetry, and a red “danger zone” between 9 PM and 3 AM warns users against setting the watch during these times. Since this is AP we’re talking about, however, you’re not about to brick the movement if you do so on accident. Finally, a moon phase indicator fills the space at 6 o’clock. Featuring a realistic image based on a NASA photograph, the full moon is now centred along the 12 o’clock axis, reinforcing the dial’s overall balance.

Though the Cal. 7138 introduces an incredible new set of revisions and features, for the time being, Audemars Piguet has limited the movement to just three individual references all available in 41mm. First is one of the newest Code 11.59 models, featuring a case just shy of 11mm thick and a generous 50mm lug-to-lug. Encased in 18k white gold, this timepiece still finds space within its labyrinthine, smoky blue dial for the incredible attention to detail expected from AP. The dial’s pattern is made up of concentric circles, rippling outwards from the centre of the dial. Designed in 2023 in collaboration with Swiss guilloché artisan Yann von Kaenel, it is complemented by 18-carat white gold lumed hands, indexes and white calendar indications for an elegant and readable design. Finally, the new 11.59 Perpetual Calendar has been equipped with a contemporary blue rubber strap with calfskin lining for an additional sporty twist.

The two Royal Oaks, on the other hand, are once again exactly what you would expect from an iconic timepiece that the Swiss brand has long since mastered. While the first reference comes in the signature stainless steel/blue Grande Tapisserie dial combo, the second comes in Audemars Piguet’s 18k sand gold. Introduced in 2024, sand gold features a blend of gold, copper and palladium unique to AP that dynamically shifts between hues of pink and white gold depending on the light. This is only enhanced further through the combined use of polished chamfering and satin-brushed finishes. As always, the Grande Tapisserie dial remains, with the entirety of the dial galvanically treated to achieve the same sand gold finish. These elements are contrasted only by the black calendar indications and the gleam of its white gold hands.

Of course, any ultra-exclusive celebration has to limit its participants. In AP’s case, the brand has elected to also create limited “anniversary” editions of each piece, with only 150 references available for each. While the aesthetics remain the same as the regular models, these limited editions feature the vintage ‘Audemars Piguet’ signature inspired by historical documents. Additionally, these pieces also feature an engraved sapphire case back frame, with the text ‘150’ and the ‘___ of 150’ indicative of the brand’s 150th anniversary.

Related Reading: Audemars Piguet Releases Eight New Royal Oak References

My Thoughts

When I first heard about the new Cal. 7138, Chamath asked me to write it up and told me to – and I quote – ‘go full nerd.’ So, for anyone I lost along the way of reading this, sorry! You will be remembered in my next I’m New To Watches article, I think. Anyway, I was certainly curious as to how Audemars Piguet had managed to cram all of the perpetual calendar’s individual facets into one crown. “Surely we won’t have to pull the crown out endlessly,” I thought to myself. “If we pull it far enough, maybe we’ll start seeing red handkerchiefs and doves pop out!“

Thankfully, Audemars Piguet’s newest perpetual calendar movement doesn’t have to resort to magic tricks. Instead, they rely on the ruthlessness and ambition of their world-class engineering team – a successful investment so far, I would say. The fact that the brand not only redesigned its perpetual calendar, smoothed out the kinks, and made it foolproof is a testament to the countless hours its R&D team devoted to creating these horological masterpieces. In the end, I firmly believe that the introduction of Cal. 7138 has solidified Audemars Piguet’s position at the top of the perpetual calendar game for the foreseeable future. Here’s to another ten years of micromechanical dominance, and here’s to another 150 years of Audemars Piguet!

References & Specifications

International RRP: Upon Request

Availability: Available as part of standard collection. 150th Anniversary references are limited to 150 pieces. See AudemarsPiguet.com for more information.