1978 Audemars Piguet Cobra White Gold Black Diamond Dial Ref. 5403BC

The White Gold Cobra

The best way to define today’s market is Luxury, the desire for precious metal watches in the wildest configurations are far up on collectors’ wish lists. This includes watches with integrated bracelets, which just a couple of years back were a tough sell.

One of these luxurious watches that is highly coveted by collectors today is the Audemars Piguet reference 5403 also nicknamed as the Cobra due to its intricate resemblance to the snake’s shape and pattern. It is not possible not to mention the iconic Royal Oak 5402 when speaking of the 5403. These two watches share quite a few details which we want to elaborate.

First of all, confusingly the 5403 was launched in 1971, one year before the Royal Oak 5402 saw the light of the day. Both watches are creations of the genius Gerald Genta himself and though they look completely different, they have a lot in common.

Let’s start with the obvious, both creations have integrated bracelets, whereas the Royal Oak bears a sleek, sharp and angular designed bracelet with individual links, the Cobra’s bracelet however is a woven, soft design that is full of artistry bearing a strong and very prominent wrist presence despite the size of only 35mm. The fine matte looking beads of rice elements are formed into a mesmerizing crossing pattern that gives you a feeling of knitted wool. These bracelets were mastered by a small but important bracelet maker Roland Gilbert Gaschen that had supplied artistic and unusual bracelets for some other Audemars Piguet watches, Rolex and other Swiss brands. The GSG hallmark is etched into the backside of the clasps.

The Cobra also shares the same movement like the Royal Oak, the ultra-thin Cal.2121 with date that was the heart of the Royal Oak Jumbo for almost 50 years. Examples from the C series from ca 1984 until 1995 even had an upgraded version of the cal.2121 movement featuring a quickset date function. The Cobra was finally discontinued around 1995.

While the Royal Oak was also available in stainless steel, the Cobra only came in white and yellow gold with different dial variants including very rare stone dials. Some dials also differ in the style of the font that is used for ‘Automatic’ caption at 6 o’clock. Some use a cursive font, most of them the print style.

The watch offered here is a white gold example from ca.1978, the 5403BC and features a very well retained matte black diamond dial with Silver print, the rarer version with double diamond setting at 12 o’clock.

The watch is overall in excellent condition bearing a prominent matte finish that gives the watch the soft and warm look it has. It is very interesting and notable that the silhouette of the sides of the bracelet is continued on the sides of the case, a testament to the detailed work of Genta. With a total length of 19cm it will even fit a chunky wrist.

This earlier example of the B series bears a screw down case back which prominent hallmark and serial engraving.

A historically important model that already amazed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. He was known to be a passionate watch collector and was captured wearing a Cobra in white gold with blue diamond dial.

We are glad the Cobra has now made it back on the ‘Collectors Radar’ after having been forgotten for decades, well deserved. Just like the Midas which sits in the same boat it has become a highly collectible and coveted watch on the market.