The catalogue records this dial as sunray rather than sunburst, and on a chronograph that distinction does more work than it would on a plain watch. A sunray base carries finer and more closely spaced radiating lines than a sunburst, so the light it throws sweeps gradually across the surface instead of flaring along a single hard axis. Under smoked grey lacquer, on a dial that also has to carry chronograph counters and a date, that gentleness is what keeps the layout readable, because a coarser pattern would have thrown bright flares directly through the registers. The case is rose gold at 41 mm across and 12.6 mm thick, the markers are rose gold, and the inner bezel is black lacquer. It is no longer part of the current collection.
The case measures 41 mm across and 12.6 mm thick in rose gold. That is roughly two millimetres taller than the time-and-date references in the same line, which is the honest cost of a flyback chronograph rather than a decision about proportion, and it remains slim for a precious metal chronograph, sitting flat against the wrist where most of the category stands off it. Rose gold changes a grey dial rather than merely containing it, since grey takes its temperature from whatever surrounds it and will read cool in white gold and warm in rose. The dial is smoked lacquered grey over a sunray pattern base, and the treatments operate on separate layers. The sunray base is cut into the metal beneath the lacquer so the texture is physical rather than printed, and the lacquer stays translucent enough for the fine lines to catch light through it. The smoking then darkens the lacquer progressively toward the rim, containing that movement rather than letting it escape at the edge. The dial consequently runs from near-black at the perimeter to a bright silver-grey at the centre and is never one value at any moment. The applied hour markers and hands are rose gold, the only warm elements present and the brightest things on the dial. The inner bezel is black lacquer, giving the darkening perimeter somewhere to resolve rather than stopping hard against the case. The strap is hand-stitched black alligator in a large square scale, coarser than the fine hide used on traditional dress watches, with a white gold pin buckle, which is the one metal component on the watch that does not match the case. The pin buckle rather than a folding clasp is consistent with the rest of the design, since a folding clasp adds height beneath the wrist and this reference has spent its entire engineering budget keeping height off the top of it. Hand-stitching is the other detail separating this configuration from the rubber-coated versions of the same watch, and unlike the sunray base it is visible from any distance. On a chronograph the strap choice also carries more weight than it does on a time-only reference, because a chronograph is the watch in this collection most likely to be used rather than admired.
The function set is a flyback chronograph with hours, minutes, small seconds and a date. A flyback is a real advance over a standard chronograph rather than a naming distinction. A conventional chronograph requires three separate presses to stop, reset and restart between consecutive timing runs, while a flyback does all three from a single press with the chronograph still running, which is why it was developed for people timing intervals back to back and why it remains the faster version to operate. Carrying it in a case this slim is the reference's real claim, since the complication is normally what makes a watch thick. The small seconds and the date complete the display, and together with the counters they make this a considerably busier dial than any time-and-date reference in the collection. That is the trade, and anyone drawn to Code 11.59 for an uninterrupted smoked surface should be looking at the 15210 references instead.
Within Audemars Piguet's structure Code 11.59 was launched as a third pillar alongside the Royal Oak and the Royal Oak Offshore, and it is the only one of the three not built around an octagonal bezel and an integrated bracelet. Within the line the 26393 chronographs sit above the 15210 selfwinding models and share their case architecture, dial treatments and strap options, which makes comparison between the two groups unusually direct. The same smoked grey dial appears on a 15210 at 10.7 mm, and setting the two side by side isolates exactly what the flyback costs in height and in dial density. Among the chronographs themselves the variants run through smoked blue, grey and burgundy across white and rose gold, with the pattern base and the strap distinguishing configurations that are otherwise identical.
This reference suits a collector who wants a rose gold chronograph that stays quiet, which is not what rose gold or chronographs are usually chosen for. The grey dial removes most of the warmth the case would otherwise project and the black strap removes the rest, leaving a watch that is unmistakably precious metal in the hand and almost anonymous across a room. The sunray base is the detail that will not survive a photograph, since images flatten it into an even grey and lose the gradual sweep entirely. The white gold buckle is the one inconsistency, and it is worth establishing whether that is deliberate before buying rather than after. Now that the reference has left the catalogue the production is closed, and Code 11.59 has never been made in volumes approaching the Royal Oak. The buyer is someone who wants the complication without any of the announcement that normally accompanies it.
