Royal Oak Chronograph (Black)

The Royal Oak Chronograph has been the line's sport-luxury-with-a-stopwatch statement since 1997, and this 41mm case, settled on in 2017, is the version most people mean when they say "Royal Oak Chrono" today. It runs the in-house Calibre 4401 rather than a modular movement bought in from an outside supplier, which was the real news when this generation launched.

This Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph wears a 41mm rose gold case with a black Grande Tapisserie dial. Calibre 4401 inside, on a black alligator strap with a rose gold folding clasp.

Fun fact: Calibre 4401 runs a flyback column wheel chronograph with a vertical clutch, replacing the horizontal-clutch layout AP had relied on for decades in its earlier outsourced movements. It is a genuinely new in-house architecture, not a reskin.