Audemars Piguet

Tim_M
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A Challenging but Endearing Design From AP

First off, my thanks to the Survivor owners who have animated this thread with superb imagery and insights!

This is a polarizing piece, and I have to say that I've only taken to it over time.  Sometimes, proper perspective takes time. 2008 was sort of the last gasp of the mid-2000's extrovert design hysteria and the beginning of the sobering epoch of the moment.  I think AP was well-advised to take a glass of cold water after this model's debut.

If the Survivor had been merely a waypoint on the road to even more outlandish ROOC limited editions, I feel that it would be harder to embrace.  Instead, it represents something of a high-water mark for the brand's stylistic audacity.  Extremity looses its power when it becomes familiar or overexposed, but the short run of the Survivor (and the lack of a sequel) has kept it fresh and intriguing. 

The fact that Survivor remains unique six years later makes it easier to see it as a focused, deliberate extrovert statement and not a sign that AP was losing touch with its values.  I think it would be harder to look back upon this piece with affection if it had become the future face of AP (somewhat in the fashion that many consider the mid-2000's a lost era for Zenith).  Personally, I find a great deal to like about the Zenith Defys and this ROO Survivor, but I think AP avoided Zenith's pitfall by retaining a broad spectrum of products that respect tradition and experimentation in equal measure.

Extreme designs have their place, just as very traditional ones do.  Time has made it easier to see the Survivor as the opposite end of a spectrum that runs from the Jules Audemars styles to the ROOC Limited Editions, with the original Royal Oaks and the Millenary somewhere in between.  If any, the Survivor stands as a delirious but fully-realized expression of AP's huge range as a manufacture.  Complicated mechanisms, craft arts, tradition, wild experimentation- all under the same roof.

One matter that cannot be argued is the degree of workmanship and thorough consideration of every detail on the Survivor.  Having never handled this piece before a few days ago, I couldn't fully appreciate just how well-executed each design element appears in the flesh.  None of the elements that appear delicate or tacked-on feel this way in the hand.  The finishing on the case, bezel, and dial is executed to the highest standards of the manufacture, as they were in 1908, 1958, or 2008.  The look may be postmodern, but the craftsmanship reflects the old-world ethic at its best.

Small details like the subtle color flourishes, functional refinements of such as the rubber bump stops for the pusher guards, and the superb use of faceting and contrasting surfaces to catch the light are testimony to a product standard deserving of the AP mark.  Quite apart from historical perspective, all of these physical elements are objective and immediately pleasing.

So cheers, Survivor, you've won another fan ;-)

-Tim

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