WOW! Audemars Piguet X 'Cactus Jack' Travis Scott 26585CM Ceramic Perpetual Calendar
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked “Cactus Jack” 26585CM
In recent years I’ve switched from being a collab sceptic to a collab consumer.
I’m not entirely sure when “drop culture” started to draw me in, but I suspect it was around the same time that collaboration pieces went from the same old same old schtick with a different brand logo which I am supremely disinterested in, to bringing something different, exciting, and wonderfully well executed to the table.
Yes, there are still lazy collabs out there, but AP is not occupying that corner of the universe, and this is a particularly knockout piece from the brand teamed with the “Cactus Jack” label, owned by no other than watch-nerd extraordinaire and hip-hop chap, Travis Scott.
As Travis Scott is a known quantity on the watch collecting scene, rubbing AP’s alongside the likes of Jay-Z and John Meyer, you could have predicted that it wasn’t going to be any kind of standard offering, and it isn’t.
This is the absolutely stonking AP Perpetual Calendar Openworked, an already top tier offering, that has been re-vamped and dialled up to suit Scott’s vision.
This is a 41mm piece, the same size as the original, but instead of being the slinky charcoal black ceramic, the case has been produced in a glorious rich deep chocolate tone that hasn’t been seen before on an AP but is a signature colour of the Cactus Jack line - personally, I love it as earthy tones are right up my street.
Rather than being on bracelet this one is on a matching brown calf and denim topped strap which has the Travis Scott and Audemars Piguet signatures on either side of the rose gold deployant clasp
Very nice indeed gives a really casual vibe to the whole package which I am sure was the intention.
I won’t linger on the case and strap for too long as they are typically perfectly executed but the dial is absolute peach of this particular piece.
It is a sapphire disk with indexes and wording printed in a crisp white print that AP designed on the back of Travis Scott’s hand drawn design for the watch.
The typeography has an almost free-form handwritten quality that verges on Sanskrit style, another custom element that I seriously approve of.
Being a perpetual calendar all of the information is present and sitting inside rose gold rings which work so so well with the chocolate case.
Tracking around the dial clockwise we have:
Month display at 12
Date display at 3
The moon phase at 6 has been given the full treatment and instead of moons, there are two Cactus Jack emblem smiley faces which rotate on a disk made from dark blue Aventurine, a form of quartz regularly seen in watchmaking which when gives the appearance of a glittering night sky.
This has become favourite ever subdial (and previously I never thought i’d have one) as it gives off some Tim Burton vibes, and honestly, call me immature but I’m hooked and want the lumed smileys on every AP going forward.
I’m pretty sure they arent going to listen to my demands though so theyll just have to be specific to this edition.
Days are taken care of at 9 and the weeks run along the rehaut around the dial and are indicated with a bright red pointer which lends a real pop of lift and colour.
The scale areas around each sub-dial are ringed with smoked sapphire to create contrast and legibility so the collab element here hasn’t affected functionality.
The otherwise crystal clear sapphire allows you to look beyond the dial and into the openworked movement sitting beneath it while losing none of the information required of a perpetual calendar.
It is one of those dials that is both different, informative, legible, and also likely to make you stare at it without having any care at all for the time, which is a hallmark of great executiuon.
I say this without even getting to the piece de resistance which is that every bit of subdial print ranging from the smileys to the days and months is executed in white superluminova so the whole thing glows when treated to a shift from light to darkness.
It’s absolutely class and not something that is immediately obvious when looking at the watch under normal circumstances, but this thing turns into an even bigger visual treat when charged up. Genuis!
The movement finishing is superb both front and rear as expected with a high level of polishing and bevelling on the movement parts, all of which is done, of course, by hand with the front facing parts visible through the dial and the rear equally on display though the sapphire case-back.
The pink gold rotor has been similarly openworked so as not to obstruct your viewing pleasure and has the Cactus Jack logo travelling down the centre pillar while AP branding follows the counterweight crescent.
The movement is AP’s in house calibre 5135 which is a “Quantiem Perpetuel” (QP) meaning Perpetual Calendar and gives 40 hours of power reserve.
As this is a ceramic piece which uses inset pushers to sort the various calendar functions, it’s rated with 20m water resistance which loosely translates to “don’t get it wet”, but this is a fair price to pay and entirely to be expected.
All in - this is a grail piece, not necessarily because its a drop culture collab, but because it’s a labour of love from a top tier brand combined with a watch aficionado who knows what little touches here and there are going to put a smile on fellow nerds faces.
The Cactus Jack P.C.O certainly puts a smile on mine and I really hope that this is going to be the first of a few Travis Scott and AP collaborations.