Code 11.59 Starwheel

When the rose gold Starwheel arrived in early 2025, I was told my white gold was from the last batch, and the rumours on the forums agreed: the blue aventurine dial was finished. I had no reason to doubt it. Yet it never happened. Both are still in the catalogue today.

The version I heard from the brand is that too many clients pushed back. The blue had built a following that Le Brassus could not quietly retire. For me, honestly, I always thought the white gold was the far better looking of the two. And I will admit it: I was quietly hoping the discontinuation would feed my vanity a little.

What I actually bought is the display. Three sapphire discs, each carrying four hour numerals, rotate on a central carousel. The current hour sweeps across a 120-degree minute arc, then hands over to the next disc. It is a seventeenth-century idea that Audemars Piguet revived in the 1990s and then put inside a blue aventurine sky.

The white gold case is heavy for its size and the aventurine changes with the light, from near black indoors to full glitter under the sun. Reading the time takes a beat longer than with hands, and that pause is the pleasure. It lives on a black fabric strap most of the time.

Here is the part I genuinely do not understand. A watch clients refused to let die, priced like one nobody wants. This reference still trades below retail and drifted lower over the past year while the wider Audemars Piguet market went up. My guess is the Code 11.59 name. Inside that line the Starwheel is treated as a bundle piece. Put the same wandering hours into a Royal Oak or a Remaster and the reaction would have been very different. For a collector that is an opportunity, not a complaint.