The Audemars Piguet 6001 was an astonishingly avant-garde timepiece in 1974 when it was launched. Its bold design housed an incredibly cutting-edge quartz movement. In fact this reference was Audemars Piguet’s first watch featuring a quartz movement and was available in steel, yellow gold and very few pieces in white gold like the present example.

While brands such as Rolex or Patek Philippe had participated in the developing of the Beta 21 quartz movement, Omega had developed the ultra precise Megaquartz caliber 1510 - precise to one second a month. Omega supplied this movement to Audemars Piguet, who labelled it as cal. 2510, which can be found in the present reference 6001. The small pusher under the crown enables the wearer to correct the one second discrepancy.

Design-wise, the reference 6001 is almost a rectangular Royal Oak, keeping with the 8 edges to the bezel . It even features the AP at 6 o’clock like the beloved reference 5402 A Series. It is entirely possible that this reference was the brainchild of Gerald Genta given the aesthetic similarities with the Royal Oak.

The present example is part of an incredibly rare series made in white gold with diamond hour markers adding a dash of flamboyance to an already incredibly good looking timepiece.