The [Re] Master01 Flyback Chronograph is more than a reinterpretation of an Fake Audemars Piguet historical chronograph created to celebrate the opening of the historical museum. The manufacture confirms that it has embarked on a path destined to build an alternative to the Royal Oak, draining from an archive that, before the seventies, years in which the Royal Oak projected the brand into the future, filled the encyclopedia of haute horlogerie . The source of inspiration for the [Re] Master01 is a chronograph from 1943 that collects together a historical phase of the first, although not the very first, wrist chronographs, and tells the story of a manufacture known for the construction of refined complications.
Fake Audemars Piguet talks about “the first reinterpretation project”, a message that communicates his intentions and perhaps the desire to make a permanent return among the players in the classic sector, such as Vacheron Constantin, for example. We will find out. Pending further news, what does a [Re] Master01 offer? An excellent nostalgia operation: the case has grown to 40mm, but the layout, materials, flavor of the original reference 1533 have been carefully preserved. The case in two materials is a novelty in this sector, we will find out how it will be accepted by the public to whom Audemars Piguet intends to address: the case is in steel, while the bezel, crown, pushers are in 18-karat gold. Steel-gold architecture was as popular in the 1940s as was the production of gold-plated steel cases in the market entry range.
Audemars Piguet [Re] Master01 has a sweet style, extremely proportionate, almost unrecognizable if we look at it while reading the brand’s pay-off in the other hand, but absolutely understandable following the path taken by Fake Audemars Piguet with the launch of the CODE 11.59 collection. It is an act of love to the Audemars Piguet of yesteryear, as the words “Genéve” and the historic logo say, a sign of an era in which the Le Brassus factory had a laboratory in the Swiss city. The dial shines for balance: the three counters, in tangency to the “chemin de fir” minute track and slightly recessed, are perfect in size and spacing; also thanks to the caliber. Felice is also the combination of two apparently irreconcilable fonts, adopted on the registers and on the dial, respectively.
It is a style that helps mitigate the not-so-small size: the case thickness approaches 15mm, an important fact given that we are talking about the re-edition of a watch once expected with a manually wound caliber. Fake Audemars Piguet [Re] Master01 is equipped with an automatic chronograph movement which, apart from the “Clous de Paris” finished gold oscillating weight (and the date), is practically the same as that adopted by the CODE 11.59. It is a fine caliber, very well decorated even in the most hidden corners, equipped with a column wheel with vertical engagement and disengagement clutch and, interesting detail, separate chrono reset hammers for each register. The [Re] Master01 is not, as expected, accessible in quantity. Proposed for more than € 50,000, it is a grandiose exercise in style and workmanship, perhaps too modern in its mechanics, even though everything has been packaged with the usual care that Audemars Piguet has accustomed us to by now.