Has AP stopped caring? Minimal Royal Oak 1017 ALYX 9SM collab

"At the crossroads of fashion and Haute-Horlogerie: unveiling our new collaboration with designer Matthew Williams and his brand 1017 ALYX 9SM."

I expect that dial on a MVMT dropshipping "removing the middleman" BS watch, not on an APRO.

The expedient of resorting to "minimalism", not researched and coded minimalism from the schools of Ludwig Mies or Max Bill, but the pretentious and unimaginative hack to overcome a lack of ideas and culture.

And people will love it.

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I think it looks great for what it is, it's a "fashion watch" for people with boat loads of money.

AP cares, they just don't care what the peasants(us) think...

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I like Matthew Williams and own a few of his Alyx pieces. He is currently the creative director for Givenchy. Williams' designs are definitely minimal and veers towards a street wear meets bdsm aesthetic but not as extreme as Rick Owens. His design for this watch makes a lot of sense given his past work - especially the ghosted dial lacking any indices. Definitely not minimal in a Dieter Rams- or Teenage Engineering- sense.

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Pointless. Yet another RO.

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kvasiir

Didn't see your post - GMTA I guess

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mesteme

Didn't see your post - GMTA I guess

No skin off my nose; just wanted to share the ongoing discussion…. Seems like most people agree with you.

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Why worry about anything if money is pouring every time you open the door?

People care SOOOO much about looking rich on social they just buy anything that's hype. Look at the Richard Mille hype and yet some of those buyers will not X diver because it's too thick.

Personally I'm not surprised.

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I would have liked it a lot better if they did it like the custom. The clasp was like their double push buckle they are known for

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I was looking at some interesting vintage AP's just earlier today - by comparison their current offering is simply tragic for a watchmaker supposed to be part of the "Holy Trinity". One of the watches I was looking at was the thinnest manual tourbillon, a real tour de force in its day. They have a back catalogue of marvellous creations to draw on (almost as varied as VC) and all they can do is pump out another RO. The 11.59 just doesn't cut it, with it's Daniel Wellington homage looks, even if the latest iterations are a slight improvement on those awful empty dialed first versions.

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If AP made a turd out of gold it would sell like hot cakes for the sake of luxury. They sell 50 year old design steel watches for crazy money because of the logo and the hype. Their logo is a licence to print money. Overspending on a simple 3 hand steel watch has been taken to a new level of crazy.

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Noooooooooo

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I’m generally not a fan of minimalism, but I have to acknowledge that it’s a thing many people like. And for whatever reason, people swear there’s a lot of work that goes into proportions and such on these type of watches. So I guess if we’re going to take other minimalist watches seriously, why not this?

Also, I think people are correct to assume that anything AP puts out will sell like crazy no matter how little effort they put in. So yeah, maybe they just phoned this one in.

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They know their audience. They know they will buy it anyway. This is the kinda watch that will get iced out immediately

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After what they say happens with Omega and swatch they probably said let see if we can generate some hype and grab the attention of the younger generation. Hey man I’m not mad at them at the end of the day there a business and have to test the waters to continue to grow and survive. ✌️😉