Spider

Audemars Piguet is continuing to take the character watch into lofty, luxury territory. In a follow-up to its 2021 Royal Oak Concept Black Panther Flying Tourbillon timepiece — which was worn by LeBron James and The Weeknd, among other stars — AP is today unveiling a new Royal Oak featuring Spider-Man.

Officially titled the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon "Spider-Man" and announced ahead of the June 2 release of the animated feature Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, the all-new watch is the latest collaboration between the vaunted Swiss watchmaker and Marvel. It features an open-worked design which neatly showcases a three-dimensional-looking Spider-Man — made in hand-painted white gold — on the dial of the 42mm tourbillon watch.

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This latest superhero Audemars Piguet watch — linking haute horology and pop culture — is being made in a limited edition of just 250 pieces, as the Black Panther AP was. The price is 195,000 Swiss francs, or around $215,000.

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The Spider-Man figure on each watch required a minimum of 50 hours of work to create, according to AP. As the watchmaker details in a release, "The silhouette and volume of the character are first cut from a block of white gold using a CNC machine. The Super Hero's suit is then laser-engraved to obtain the differences in texture that give it its textile appearance. This operation requires complex machine programming and many tests to obtain the desired result. After this step, touch-ups and engraving-related finishings are meticulously done by hand by a single artisan, making each piece unique. The character is ultimately hand-painted to give him his recognizable two-tone aesthetic, contrasting matte red and metallic blue. During this stage, the painter emphasizes shadows and contrasts to give Spider-Man even more perspective."

The watch's case is made in lightweight, durable titanium while the bezel and crown are made in black ceramic. The movement is the new hand-wound Calibre 2974 (based on the Calibre 2948). Other details include PVD-coated gold hour-markers and Arabic numerals as well as hands in the same materials. In the dark, the markers and hands turn blue in the dark, thanks to a white luminescent coating. It also comes with an interchangeable strap system, allowing the wearer to switch between a black-and-grey rubber strap featuring a titanium AP buckle and a rubber strap in Spider-Man inspired black and red. It is water resistant to 50 meters and is made of 197 parts.

There is a charitable component as well that could raise millions for two nonprofits. Audemars Piguet has announced that it also will make a one-of-a-kind piece called the Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon "Black Suit Spider-Man," inspired by the black suit worn by the superhero in some comic book iterations.

The unique timepiece will be auctioned with all proceeds going to two organizations, Ashoka and First Book. The nonprofits, according to AP, "are systemically addressing the opportunity and resource gap that prevents young people from low-income and historically excluded communities from becoming changemakers." In 2021, AP similarly made a unique version of its Black Panther tourbillon watch, which netted $5.2 million at auction and also supported Ashoka and First Book.

Said François-Henry Bennahmias, CEO of Audemars Piguet, in a statement, "For this second collaboration with Marvel, we want to pay tribute to Spider-Man, one of the most popular Super Heroes in the Marvel universe, who is aware that with great power comes great responsibility. And, to mark the occasion, we are pleased to reiterate our commitment to First Book and Ashoka's work to empower young people to become agents of change; they are our real-life heroes."

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