The Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Starwheel in Rose Gold

When the first version of the Code 11.59 Starwheel launched back in 2022, it was probably the first Code 11.59 that I genuinely, enthusiastically fell in love with. Sure, I'm excited anytime there's a splash of aventurine anywhere on the dial, but in this case, it was because Audemars Piguet completely reinterpreted its compact, dressy, wandering hours complication from 1991—itself an homage to 17th century watchmaking—for an ultra-modern industrial look in white gold.

The wandering hours complication features a central, constantly rotating carousel, with three satellite hour discs containing all twelve hours. While the carousel turns, with the current hour at the top arrow pointing to the 120-degree minutes track, the other two "inactive" satellites continue to rotate, with the upcoming hour pivoting into position on the next disc thanks to the star-shaped gear underneath each. It's a more understandable mechanism in the 90s version, with the transparent discs showing the full system underneath and revealing how the watch got its name. Here, in the Code 11.59 Starwheel, the whole system takes the form of Calibre 4310, a modern in-house caliber with 70 hours of power reserve.