Only twice in our watch collecting life we have ran into one of the most fascinating and unique timepieces made by Audemars Piguet. We are talking about the ultra rare Audemars Piguet Coin Watch in 18K yellow gold. As far as we know, these rare coin watches were created by Audemars Piguet between 1915 and the late 1980s. The coin watches were produced in very limited quantities and in different currencies including U.S. dollars, Swiss Francs, French Francs and Mexican Pesos.
This particular twenty dollar coin watch, features a bas-relief portrait of the Lady of Liberty with the year 1901 on the obverse and the legend 'United States of America Twenty Dollars' along with the Great Seal of the United States of America on the reverse.
Concealed inside the 18K yellow gold coin —measuring 34 mm in diameter—, there is a special surprise: a small manual wound watch that is only accessible by pressing a hidden recessed push button that is almost invisible to the naked eye as it is milled as part of the reeds and only visible upon very close inspection.
After carefully pressing the hidden button with your nail, the hinged top —obverse side— will then reveal a beautifully finished swing-out watch with winding crown at 1 o'clock. The small watch with an 18K yellow gold case measuring close to 24 mm in diameter, features a gorgeous matte off-white dial with gilded batons and needle-shaped hands. To ease the process of setting and telling time, the watch can be tilted upwards all the way up to an angle of 115 degrees. The hinged lid only goes up to a 90 degree angle.
The winding crown located at the 1 o'clock position around the fluted case band is really minuscule but very easy to operate even for those with large fingertips. The beating heart inside this exceptional piece of 'haute horlogerie', is the Audemars Piguet manual wound calibre 2005/1 with 17 jewels and which provides a power reserve of 32 hours when fully wound. The movement is protected by a solid snap-on case back that is highly polished and properly minted with the respective gold engravings. To round up the elegant design of this timepiece, both the hinged cover and the area where the watch is set to rest when closing the lid are delicately finished with 'perlage'.
If you like pocket watches and you are ready to have a true conversation piece that will wow everyone around you, this Audemars Piguet Coin Watch is as good as it gets. While it's quite impressive to own a watch like this bearing the name of one of the three manufactures that conform the 'Holy Trinity of Watchmaking', we find it even more impressive just to think about the thought process behind a timepiece like this. This particular coin watch is another one of the many amazing timepieces that were auctioned a while back at a very well known auction house.
Sticker Price $3,000-6,000 USD. For more info on Audemars Piguet click here.
