Audemars Piguet

Hi guys Has all 5402 a letter and number on the case back? If not, is it a service caseback or not genuine? I ask, as this is a caseback of a 5402 sold in 1975, with AP above 6, with stated individual serial number from AD: 99xxx.... Best, and Thankyou for comments Hans

(picture, credit seller..) This message has been edited by hans_jorgen_1968 on 2011-11-05 13:10:06

had a individual engraving like A - 1550, B - 1033 ... or something like this.

Service caseback don´t existe, because the 5402 has a monocoque case, so that it is only possible to change the whole case.

For me the case, that you show on the picture is original, but polished - look at the deepness of the "Royal Oak" on the pictures and compare them.

 
Perhabs there was once a individual engraving from the owner, that has been removed - and the inividual number with ist?  Who knows.

The 99xxx you wrote about, is the number the official AP casebacknumber (you find this on official letters, certificates from AP to your watch and you find it in parts - not complete-  inside the watch engraved on case) begins with for one special watch (in your case the number for the watch you show us, if the number is correct for this watch).

AP has used different "logical systems" for the 5402 during the series A, B, C and D  and sometimes it is possible to find out the individual caseback-number, that is engraved on the caseback with help of this number (67XXX, 80XXX, 99XXX, B28XXX, B29XXX) - but it is not possible for all watches - i am sure not for D-series. For A-series it is easy.

99XXX i have not enough information - but it could be a B - XXX       - but i am really not sure.

 

regards

 

Stephan

 

i answered a little bit untrue (only a little bit), because

also for D it is possible - but not only by comparing the "official caseback-number" for a D-series with another number from

D-series, from wich you know both numbers. Than you can find out by mathematics.

complicaded ?

Yes really

But don´t worry - the 5402 you show us is no D-Series, if number 99XXX is correct.

 

Stephan

if all other aspects of the watch are correct, you also can by a watch like this.

But the price must be really low according to a 5402 with correct case-back

and if you want to sell this watch one day, all potential byers (and real collectors

don´t are potential byers than) will have the same major doubts.

 

Stephan

this post reminded me of Dr. T's posts:

ap.watchprosite.com

and this one:

ap.watchprosite.com =

Is it also possible that the reliable sources and old timers (as in old AP employees) that for many years said that the 5402 was 1st released without any leading Alpha character were indeed correct and this caseback is the 1st proof that we've seen of that?

S

No message body

nt

Hi,
 It's that there are no APRO's without the A designation for the serial number. There simply is no AP RO number 001, but there IS a A01- and that wold definitely be the first one sold.
If you have the new AP book by F. Chaille (Flammarion pub), you'll see on page 216-217 an image and info about one of the very first RO's, number A26 in fact. It was made in 1972 and sold on June 15, 1972.
 Also if you look up some of the famous auction houses, you'll see some info on these first RO's. There's one if I remeber correctly numbered A33 that also sold in 1972 and there's a nice description and picture of the sales receipt, etc.

So he said not to start this discussion again because in the past there's been lots of misconception (yes even from AP employees!) about a non A series APRO. But that is just misinformation.

So... the first series of RO are A series... you can also see from the old AP book (the Brunner, et al) that the movements for these RO's were already manufactured and in in stock in 1971 (which is of course normal!), but given that this RO's movement is numbered at 127059 one can start to guess at how many were produced and whether they took a straight batch of 1000 cal 2120's for the APRO or if they just cased them as the orders came in (which appears to be the case with this info on the serial number and case number, i.e. we can speculat ad infinitum.

To give credit to 'only5402' although he doesn't have many posts, he definitely knows what he's talking about!!  Look up his posts for prior discussions of this serial number issue as well and you'll see he's one of the few who can separate crazy infatuation from actual solid info.

And about this particular APRO, I agree that jewelers are experts at messing up watch cases in order to take inscriptions off! It looks like it's simply been heavily sanded.

Hope this helps,
S

I recently found a similar serial number.
It's 99XXX. Please let me know if you have any new information regarding this serial number. By the way, this watch has a certificate of authenticity issued by Swiss AP. What that means is that this serial number has been officially verified by AP.