What must have ever possessed Audemars Piguet to introduce the Philosopher in the early 1980’s? Or at all? Was it a late counter move against the quartz-crisis? A mad project of an overworked designer? Or was it just a vision piece of what Audemars Piguet thought the future of the watch would look like?

Whatever the reason, the Philosopher is by far the most bizarre yet brilliant watch that ever left the manufacture of Audemars Piguet. Bizarre because telling the time, one of the main functions of the watch before cell phones took over, has been made nearly impossible. This starts by giving the watch only one hand. Today that is not so strange because brands like Meistersinger, Peter Speak-Marin, Pita, Jaquet Droz and Defakto have been doing this too.

These other brands produced watches from which you can reasonably easily read the time. Forget that with the Philosopher! First of all the Philospher is small, 31mm in diameter, so about the size of a quarter. Secondly, Audemars Piguet did use the most elegant of hands, but made them just short of actually reaching all the way to the indices. Not that this helps very much, because the gold indices indicate the hours and three very thin stripes in between indicate the quarters. So in order to read the correct time with a decent degree of accuracy, you probably need the eyes of a hawk! If you are not equipped with those, be careful when you wear this watch. You may think that at worst you can be a couple of minutes late or early, but this could be disastrous when you travel by plane of have a wedding to go to!

Funny about this watch is that Audemars Piguet included a feature so that you can actually mark a certain time. This is done by turning the white gold dot in the rotating bezel to the required time. Just make sure you do this in advance, preferably at home with a magnifying glass.

But what are we complaining about? This watch was never intended to tell time to the precise second, even though its manual wind movement is perfectly capable of this. It was merely created to give you a sense of the passing of time. Perfect when you are sitting in front of the fire place with a XO Cognac and the latest issue of your favorite magazine, or when you take a stroll with your significant other along the promenade of St. Tropez on your vacation.

The Philosopher is also a testament to the history of watchmaking. With its case heavily inspired by an old-fashioned pocket watch, including the loop at 12 o’clock, it is of course made out of 18K yellow gold and is a dress watch put sang! Especially with the  “Grains-de-Riz”, which is as comfortable as it is beautiful!

Although this is not a watch for everyone, it is a unique Audemars Piguet that might be the perfect watch for someone. When you are ready for such a watch, Christie’s has one coming up in their Geneva auction on May 14^th as lot 341.