Audemars Piguet Extra-Plate "Banque Vaudoise" in yellow gold

1995 | Yellow gold | Manual | 32.0mm

There is a particular category of watch that no catalogue can produce: the institutional commission. Made to mark a moment, distributed to those who were part of it, and never available to the public. This Audemars Piguet Extra-Plate is precisely that — produced in 1995 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Banque Vaudoise, engraved on the caseback, and belonging to a closed series that will never be repeated.

The watch itself is a study in proportion. At 32mm, the yellow gold case is paper-thin — the Extra-Plate name is not decorative — and the white dial with full Roman numerals and slender blued hands occupies the entire surface without a single wasted element. No date, no indices, no complication. Just time, told by Audemars Piguet, in the most direct way possible.

The movement, concealed behind the engraved caseback, is a manually wound calibre of the kind AP reserved for its dress pieces — reliable, well-finished, and entirely suited to a watch of this character.

This example presents in fine condition, the gold case retaining its warm tone and the dial showing cleanly. The engraving on the caseback is the detail that makes it irreplaceable: a document of a specific moment in Swiss banking history, carried quietly on the wrist.