The catalogue shape

Rolex spreads 3,659 watches across 30 collections and 42 movements, with the Datejust family, five collections from the Lady-Datejust to the Datejust 41, making up 60 per cent. Audemars Piguet puts 74 per cent of its 1,388 into the Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore, and spreads them across 123 movements. Five Rolex calibers power 78 per cent of its watches; five Audemars Piguet calibers power 36 per cent.

Every Rolex here is automatic and 1 per cent have a display back. 79 per cent of Audemars Piguet watches are automatic, 15 per cent hand-wound, and 65 per cent show the movement, which is the point of an openworked Royal Oak.

Cases

The Rolex median is 36 mm and the Audemars Piguet median 41 mm, the size of the Royal Oak Selfwinding. Rolex is the more precious of the two in this library, 50 per cent gold or platinum and 36 per cent Rolesor, against 59 per cent precious and 23 per cent steel at Audemars Piguet, whose two-tone share is 2 per cent. Water resistance separates them cleanly: 98 per cent of Rolex watches are rated to 100 m or more, 17 per cent of Audemars Piguet, and the Royal Oak's 50 m is a dress rating on a sports case.

Complications

Audemars Piguet makes them and Rolex mostly does not. 22 per cent of the Audemars Piguet watches here are chronographs, 14 per cent tourbillons and 6 per cent perpetual calendars; Rolex has the Daytona at 5 per cent, the day of the Day-Date, the GMT-Master and the Sky-Dweller. The chronograph piece compares the two houses' chronographs directly, the Rolex 4130 and the Audemars Piguet 4401, which share the same column-wheel-and-vertical-clutch architecture.

Rolex makes no limited editions; 27 per cent of the Audemars Piguet watches here are. The rarity medians are 5 and 4.

The pairs

The Datejust 41 and the 41 mm Royal Oak are the everyday watches; the Submariner and the Royal Oak Offshore Diver are the divers, both rated to 300 m; the Daytona and the Royal Oak Chronograph are the chronographs; and the gold Day-Date and the gold Royal Oak are the dress watches each brand sells in the largest numbers. The 3235 and the 4302 are the current three-hand movements behind them.