Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship this weekend becoming the oldest golfer at age 50 to win a major championship in the history of the sport. He was wearing an old Rolex Cellini with a white dial while making history. While professional golfers are often spotted wearing special timepieces, there are just a few watches out there that can be directly linked to a particular golfer. Of course, we can think of the discontinued Tudor Chronographs released in the 90s honoring Tiger Woods and the so many pro-golfers like Rory McIlroy working alongside watch brands —in his case before being with Omega he was an Audemars Piguet golf ambassador—, but there is always one particular watch that screams golf like no other and that is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Championship or the Royal Oak Nick Faldo limited edition.
The Royal Oak Championship was released to celebrate Sir Nick Faldo’s 1990 Masters and British Open back-to-back victories and there are two things that make the Royal Oak Championship a very special watch.
First, the watch sports a combination of stainless steel and tantalum for the very first time, as tantalum has only been used before by Audemars Piguet in combination with 18K rose gold. Then second, the watch was sold with the most unique box set ever presented by Audemars Piguet or any other watch brand that we can think of.
Released in a limited edition of 2,000 pieces, Audemars Piguet decided to call out in its advertisement that the watch had already been pre-sold to 1,100 collectors around the world. Remember this was in the early 90s and the watch frenzy was nowhere where it is today —see the full vintage advertisement below.
While one can find many used Royal Oak Championship watches for sale online, we have never seen one being offered as part of this incredible box set.
This rare box set was comprised of the 33 mm Royal Oak Championship watch ref. 56175TT.O.789TT, a set of cufflinks in tantalum/steel, a black leather alligator belt with half-octagonal buckle in tantalum/steel, a pill-box in the octagonal shape of the Royal Oak in tantalum/steel, a keychain, a chain in stainless steel with octagonal Royal Oak pendant in tantalum/steel, and a bracelet in tantalum/steel. All of these items presented in a special green leather Audemars Piguet rectangular box.
Without a doubt a very elusive set and one that we wish to own or at least see in the metal one day. If you have one of these full sets for sale please email us.
For more info on Audemars Piguet click here
