The city was decorated, guests were invited, billions were spent and the couple tied the knot -at the centre of it – an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar.

Asia’s biggest wedding is taking place in Mumbai, the trade capital of India – amongst all the news, a gift makes a lot of noise (no it’s not a minute repeater). For context, Anant Ambani, the youngest son and heir of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in Asia and 6th richest globally – is set to marry his sweetheart Radhika Merchant in an extravagant wedding in the city of Mumbai this week.

Guests from all over the world have flown in to the port city, making it the safest and the richest city right now. The attendees include who’s who from Hollywood and Bollywood to the names of global political and economic power houses. The wedding has been one of the hot topics of news this year, covering every aspect of human life in one way or another and of course it is a very big deal in India – for the family and the average Jio user. This all started with another similar yet comparatively smaller ‘pre-wedding’ event at Jamnagar earlier this year.

The Ambani Family

Anyways, back to the topic. I was not following the event or the news (I was maybe) as either I knew the kind of watches on display or I am not much of a pop man. That, until yesterday, when all hell broke loose on Anant Ambani – the groom – gifting his groomsmen and close friends a Limited Edition Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar and forcing me out of hibernation.

The box of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ‘Luminary’, a limited edition of 25 pieces. the watch in question.

The Culture

As I always say, every watch tells a story; some people/collectors buy watches to commemorate special occasions like weddings, birth of their child, anniversary etc. It’s a norm and known in the community. It just adds more meaning and charm to a mere material possession beyond its monetary value.

The wife or the husband buys a watch for their spouse to mark their wedding with a caseback inscription – the most common practice from the mid-30s which has been observed in auctioned watches with lovely messages, dates and names of the couples.

Local brands like Titan and Timex have capitalized on the theme of marriage with their ‘couple watch sets’ – a bigger watch for the groom and smaller, more elegant similar watch for the bride. One might ask ‘why?’ as such practices are rare in the western world. Recently, brands have started advertising couple watches to increase influence amongst the ladies.

Titan Wedding Collection

Weddings in India and anywhere else in the eastern part of the world are a serious and a very sacred affair (not that they are not in the other parts of the world) but culturally weddings here last almost a week or even months in this case. Its a ‘once in a lifetime’ celebration the preps of which begin months, even years early.

I am not sure what taboos you might have come across on the internet about Indian weddings with negative things like bondages, dowry, rituals etc but we will give you a fresh and rather interesting perspective which is more relevant to the topic.

A Patek Philippe Nautilus ‘couple’ advertisement

Wedding – the function and the marriage in India and in the rest of the Eastern world are considered a very sacred institution of life – a stereotype stuck to Asians – truly so. The weddings are rich in every aspect – from the rituals, the decorations, the colours to the food, the apparels & the jewellery. An average Indian wedding could cost between 20 lakhs to 5 crores i.e $200,000 to some millions or even billions with most of the funds spent on jewellery and other preps – former which later acts as an asset. You have to experience it to understand it.

In the late 80’s watch brands started featuring women’s models alongside men’s to increase sales. A 1982 ad of Omega Constellation Manhattan featuring Robert Wagner. A lovely ‘bond’ indeed.

On the men’s part- customs, values and material items like jewellery, rings (sometimes watches) and swords are passed down to the groom. Similarly, on the women’s part – old family jewellery, wedding gowns and sarees are taken out of safes to be passed on to the bride. Yes, men wear jewellery in India – less now but if one tries to go through old pictures of men in India [and museums across Europe and Americas], you might as well find a gold mine, from the Maharaja to the common herdsmen – jewels are integral and important part of Indian culture. In fact, most of the larger orders to famed European jewellers like V.C&A, Chaumet, Cartier etc were commissioned by Indian Maharajas and such was the case even before the Mughal and European occupation of India with Sword of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and throne of Maharaja Ranjit Singh being a few well known examples.

Jewels, irrespective of the sex are symbols of power and authority in this part of the world in addition to being assets. Many of the above mentioned jewels are now either looted, kept in museums or in possession of the successors and other royal families and businessmen across the world. Such jewels with great provenances often come at auctions like Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

The Watch

Times have changed and a modern, urban man does not carry many jewels. As it is often said in the community, watches are one set of jewellery or accessory that men are allowed to wear, serving both a functional and aesthetic purposes.

Guests often gift the groom and bride at their wedding, but if you are the son of Asia’s richest man, you give away gifts at your wedding. Anant, like his father, is a watch nerd and famous as ‘rich brat with expensive watches’. Now we can’t and won’t comment on his taste in watches but a predictable one like every borderline Gen-Z and his purchasing capacity – its mostly modern Pateks, APs, and RMs. To dig a little deeper, he likes watches with gemstones, a trait probably acquired from his mother, Mrs. Neeta Ambani and he often appears in news for his watches.

Anant & his 18-carat pink gold AP Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Openworked set with 436 baguette-cut diamonds.

Here is an article from IFL Watches on his watch collection. Recently a video of him showing his Richard Mille RM 56-02 to Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan during his pre-wedding celebrations at Jamnagar went viral.

Anant Ambani and his team commissioned a set of 25 rose gold AP ROPCs as a gift to mark his wedding to his long-time girlfriend Radhika Merchant. The watch was given to his close friends and groomsmen including Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh.

The watch first appeared on mentioned actor Ranveer Singh’s wrist in a photo posted on IG, four days ago.

The watch on Singh’s wrist

Subsequently, watch page The Indian Horology @theindianhorology posted a reel confirming the news of the groom gifting APs to his close friends.

The video featured actors Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh wearing the watch amongst others who received the watch, gathered for a group wrist shot.

As soon as the news erupted, media sleuths got to their jobs; the lefts criticizing the wealth and asking them to feed someone, the rights flexing the GDP and going crazy over aspirational wealth and the ones in between – the mediocres – every other media houses getting confused over the actual price of the watch, to match their agendas.

The sad-yet-laughable state of media

The actual price of the watch cannot be determined as its a limited edition made for a particular occasion never to be reproduced again. Named ‘Luminary Edition’, this watch is a rose gold Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar and it features a rose gold dial with black sub dials. This configuration is reminiscent of the 100-piece ‘Latin America’ edition made in 2018, however, this is an entirely new model. The price thrown over in the news is a speculation that comes from the retail price of the Latin America edition which retailed for $105,000 or ₹88,00,000, back in 2018 and currently goes for $370,759 or ₹3,00,00,000 i.e INR 3 Cr on Chrono24.

The Latin America dial featured a very similar dial but with blue sub dial configuration.

Now lets say you want to really determine the price, firstly this is an entire new watch – or a revival of the Latin America edition with customization suiting to the Ambanis. The Luminary Edition probably comes with full black sub dials and special engraved casebacks to mark the grand marriage.

One must consider how difficult it is to commission a limited edition for an occasion, that too from one of the three holy trinity watchmakers even if you are one of the richest men in the world. Its not the question of how much money you have but what kind of relationship have you built and more importantly and practically – the capacity of the manufacture.

To top it all off – consider the time taken to make the watches – since its an LE for such a significant event made just in a batch of 25. As per Hindu tradition, the wedding dates were reportedly chosen according to auspicious days on the bride and groom’s birth charts, which makes the caseback inscription even more complicated and difficult.

Let’s come to the most talked part , the price – we can predict the price of each individual watch to be anywhere between ₹4-5 Cr. How? Consider a few things like the complication, the materials, simple supply and demand, customs and most importantly – the time required and inflation. It can be easily speculated that the order was placed 2-3 or even 4 years in advance. The relationship and the importance of the family and the amount of free PR AP will receive may also account to priority and fastrack of the order.

The choice of materials of the watch too are special, gold has a cultural significance – It is believed that offering gold to the gods and goddesses brings good luck and prosperity. It is also said to have healing properties and is used in Ayurveda to treat various ailments. Gold is also given as a gift during auspicious occasions like weddings and childbirth. Rose Gold gives it a modern punch and hold its value well overtime. Of course no one will sell this watch, not soon.

For someone who earns ₹10 Cr/$1 million every 15 minutes via his conglomerate and spent over $700 million or ₹5000 Cr on a marriage function, a watch worth ₹5 Cr/$650,000 is peanuts. The total cost of the whole order can be amounted to ₹125 Cr/$16 million. In the grand scheme of things – if you spend Rs 2000-5000Cr on a wedding, Rs 50-100Cr for watches is not much. You can make a lot of people very happy. These watches will return double the investments within a few years if not months.

The wedding was future business in disguise and a good show of wealth, power and affluence. Mukesh Bhai is known for his future planning, to plan moves 10 years in advance, that’s how you make such a huge business machinery work.

This is one gift that made it to the hype, Who knows what other things made it to wrists of other guests, We can only speculate and be happy about it?

Audemars Piguet and India

Audemars Piguet has a long yet very niche history in India. AP, like its peer companies entered the Indian market in the late 19th century with its pocket watches for the Maharajas and other wealthy customers, including British, local traders and money lenders. The brand made complication pocket watches and jump hours with elaborate decorations with gemstones and engravings on special order by the Maharajas. The brand collaborated with local retailers like Cooke & Kelvey Co. and P. Orr & Sons and watchmakers and jewellers like Cartier to name a few to bring watches to the Indian and South Asian market.

As the wealth started to diminish and sway away to Europe towards mid-20th century so did the watches and the brand which was suffering from its own crisis, just like other Swiss brands.

The brand continued its presence in the market with businessmen and actors being its primary clients but on a very small scale made an official comeback and re-entered the Indian market around 1990s, we are not sure of the exact year, as there are no particular records about it.

Looking at its potential in the Indian market, the company announced Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador in 2005. Cricket is the unofficial religion of the Indian subcontinent and Sachin is its god. I don’t think I need to elaborate much on him. In addition to his contractual endorsements, AP seems to be his personal favourite watchmaker. Hence the brand produced two Sachin Tendulkar Limited Edition Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore chronographs – limited editions of 150 and 300 respectively – to celebrate the cricketer’s record of 35 centuries in 2013.

Note – These were not commissioned pieces but an initiative by the brand and the ambassador to increase its popularity of the watch and celebrate the player.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Sachin Tendulkar LE of 300.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph Sachin Tendulkar LE of 150.

A significant moment between Sachin, AP and India occurred when Mr.Tendulkar lifted the world cup trophy with an AP on his wrist;

Sachin Tendulkar with the ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy, 2011 wearing a rose gold Offshore – Ref. 25940.

Talking of trophies and perpetual calendars, a similar moment occurred a decade later when-now captain of the Indian Cricket team Rohit Sharma lifted the T20 World Cup trophy last month.

Rohit Sharma with the T20 trophy wearing the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Titanium Salmon dial – Ref. 26615TI.

While Rolex (no hate) used to be on the wrist during notable times in the past, its AP making the mark now. Audemars Piguet has certainly made its name amongst the Bollywood and cricket circles in India with the watch brand frequently appearing on the wrists of actors and cricketers alike.

Mentioned earlier, SRK is an AP guy, seen here with most talked AP of 2022-23, AP ROK Perpetual Calendar Blue Ceramic – Ref. 26579CS.

Parting Note – Audemars Piguet did an amazing job with the reintroduction of perpetual calendar complication to its catalogue, not just experimenting with complication but materials too, AP will go a far way. But balance has to be maintained. Things lose their flavour if you milk them for too long with no evolution.

On India – AP must increase its presence in the Indian market. The brand may not increase its investments in India until they get significant returns but upon the general popular, retailers and the brand to take initiative and bring it to more mainstream audience and maybe open independent boutiques starting with major capitals. This may open a grey area, but that’s a concern for later. More on both, in next dispatches.

We wish a very happy married life to Anant and Radhika, may you both be blessed with children and watches – heirs and heirlooms.