Tell me more about the AP Royal Oak 4100 vintages

Hi all,

I recently stumbled upon a /r/watches post that showed an audemars piguet royal oak 4100st (I believe the owner bought it from an omegaforum member too).

I was intrigued - for someone with tiny 6.25-6.5" wrists, the 35mm vintage size was a huge plus. I always loved the look of the AP ROs but found the 40mm+ ones much too large for me; and the patek nautlius is a bit out of my price range as much as I dig the design.

So I've been doing research on the 4100s, but there doesn't really seem to be much info out there! A few points I was hoping y'all could englighten me on:

1) Seems like a modified JLC movement. reliable? keeps time good? difficult/expensive to service?
2) case seems to be 8mm thick - love thin casings; does it wear like a thinner watch? Anyone have any wrist shots on a smallish wrist? I'm currently rocking a 3572.50 hesalite sammich along with a few others (iwc mk18 and gs snowflake is in the rotation), and those are just barely fitting on my wrist.
3) How rare are these? I'm not finding many on watchrecon. I have a trip to Tokyo planned in October; will the 4100st be a tough one to find out there if anyone has experience? (fwiw, jack road was awesome and I found my silver snoopy speedy there; but don't recall seeing too many APs, wondering if the japanese are fond of APs or not they way they are with speedies).
JP (ginza rasin) also had the other snoopy speedy (the 90s one), I almost bought it, decided to think about it; went back the next day to buy it and it was gone!!

Thanks everyone; and just for entertainment here is the silver snoopy and a couple of my other pieces for fun. You can see how small my wrist is - I loved my friend's sub-c but it's just a bit too large for me imo.

4100's pop up from time to time. There was one posted here for sale recently. I'd look at the 14790's as well, which is the same size.

I also have smaller wrists and have a 14790, which fits really well. Considering a steel version now as well, either the 4100 or another 14790

Oh, that's awesome. I'll look into the 14790 as well, thank you! Do all the 14790s have tritium for lume? or domr/later years on luminova? Any major differences between the 4100/14790?

Midsize Royal Oaks are a great deal. However, service on these can be expensive, so make sure you factor for that in the purchase price. Best would be to call AP to check service costs.

Hi all,

I´m also looking at buying an AP. Started looking at 15300/15400 but I´m also a bit of a vintage kind of guy. Found this, but I think it looks a bit soft. The dial looks great IMHO. Is his watch something to explore further or a no-go? Could it be serviced just movement+case? And should the case be touched at all?

Br Peter

Did you finally buy the 4100 and any more info on the reliability questions? Considering one as well.

Watchworks in Pasadena CA would restore case and bracelet perfectly close to new. they seem to be the one the best one for this work