Connected to the white Royal Oak Offshore Diver is a white rubber strap. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Navy Review obviously uses a very high-quality rubber that looks and feels amazing. Rubber isn’t made equally, so once you get to deal with its very best forms it is going back to economical rubberized… unpleasant. The white rubber is matched to a titanium buckle, and the entire thing just works together nicely.In my view this could be “the white watch” to begin for all those men that are mighty skeptical of that whole “dudes sporting white watches” thing. Frankly, it really depends upon your style and where you reside. Find yourself in a hot city or coastal city such as Los Angeles or Miami? Then a white watch will fit in just fine. Are you stationed in New York City or London during the winter? If so then you may want to maintain this in a box to the summertime. People today know I have no desire to wear feminine watches so when I state these are trendy it is because they’re in a very masculine kind of way. Still not to white watches? That’s cool – you still have far too many options out there to choose from. Cost for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver in white ceramic is $23,900. There are some watches out there which, an individual might feel, seem to have ever been around. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph works so well as a natural extension into the Diver collection that, to me, it’s definitely such a watch. A couple weeks back at SIHH 2016, Audemars Piguet finally enhanced their “ROO Diver” — originally released at SIHH 2010 — by including a chronograph function for it. Do the math, and you’ll find that It took six years to the new to generate the first considerable, major update to this group. To compensate for that lengthy wait, the Le Brassus-based manufacture premiered not one, but four distinct color options. Here is our hands-on appearance.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Michael Schumacher Platinum Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph 25th Anniversary and Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph are three new, pre-SIHH 2018 references that we’ll see in stores next year, when AP is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its Royal Oak Offshore line.
When Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore White Face unveiled the first Royal Oak Offshore some 25 years ago, I don’t think they expected it to be the success that it is today, even though it largely built on the original Royal Oak recipe: go very large, very bold, and expensive. Many forget that at the time of its debut in 1972, the now-classical 39mm Royal Oak caused quite a stir with its price, its on-display screw heads in its bezel, its steel case and bracelet, and its extremely high price, unprecedented for a steel watch. Now, all this was to be taken to the next level with the Royal Oak Offshore.
It was large and brash, and purists who saw it at Basel back in 1993 screamed that the Royal Oak had been desecrated – probably the same people who cried out to about the original Royal Oak desecrating luxury watches in general. Truth be told, the Offshore was a bold move by Audemars Piguet, but now we all know how well it has paid off. Today, the Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore are Audemars Piguet’s best-selling collections – basically synonymous with the brand itself, which clearly isn’t a good thing, but we’ll leave that discussion for another time.
As 2018 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Royal Oak Offshore, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Te Koop will commemorate the occasion with three special Royal Oak Offshore offerings – with certainly a few more in the pipeline, waiting to be launched at SIHH 2018. Here’s your first look at the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph 25th Anniversary and the Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph.
It was a relief to see Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore N7243 not shy away from having a see-through case-back, using the 300-meter water resistance score as an excuse to hide what’s inside. Hence, what you will find turning the new Diver Chronograph above is the impressive-looking Audemars Piguet Calibre 3124/3841 — a manufacture base standard using a Dubois-Depraz chronograph module on top. That’s right, AP has stuck using this modular construction, whereas Vacheron Constantin has at last upgraded its Overseas (hands-on here), and Patek Philippe’s Nautilus (hands-on here) also has their in-house chronograph movement, albeit in a much higher price.An simple way to spot and differentiate a modular chronograph movement from an incorporated one is to inspect that the pushers and crown of the situation: when the chronograph pushers aren’t on the exact same level as the crown but farther upwards, then you know there has been a module installed in addition to a foundation movement. Just check the profile taken two above, for a “once seen, you can never unsee” experience. This little detail may or might not be a problem for you — although, arguably, the higher the price, the more expected a fully in-house motion becomes.Still, detailing is up there, having a superbly crafted, solid gold winding rotor with embossed AP initials and coats of arms. Thanks to a smart utilization of the eight structural screws and that summarize that frames the sapphire window, the movement seems to fill out the case better than it really does — it is a rather small 29.92-millimeter-wide and 7.16-millimeter-thick movement within a 42-milimeter case, following all.Altogether, you will find 364 components and 59 stones in the Audemars Piguet Caliber 3124/3841 that runs in 3 Hertz for about 50 hours without winding — expect the more contemporary 4 Hertz to emerge in a brand new, entirely in-house chronograph grade… well, later.
This new chronograph variant brings that contemporary approach to another level as, in the time of release, there really are no really conservative color selections for your newest Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph: you’ll have it in glowing yellow, vibrant orange, deep blue (with a dab of yellow), or even in-your-face green (facts: that latter one isn’t a formal color code, and it is being reserved for the Geneva boutique only — critically). The new Diver Chronograph retains many of the original Diver’s signature design elements. The interior rotating flange ring which may be adjusted through the ceramic crown in the 10 o’clock position is still existing, and therefore is Audemars Piguet’s trademark “Méga Tapisserie” dial layout with these chunky, well-defined blocks which, to this day, still do the job so well with the overall theme and seems of the watch. The massive hour and minute hands remain, and so do the implemented indices together with the faceted borders — upon a closer look, you will find numerous high-end particulars to keep the new Diver based on everything you’d expect from AP when it comes to quality of execution.The Royal Oak Offshore situation is as impressive as ever, also: built like a tank, crafted from beautifully machined and polished steel in a size of 42 millimeters wide and 14.75 millimeters thick. The ROO strikes a interesting balance, looking for the love child of weapon-grade equipment and nice jewelry. Just look at this profile taken two over: it is chunky, blocky, and yet in some weirdly cool way, justifiably across the top.To create some much needed contrast to all this muscle-flexing, the thin, polished and beveled edge that runs along the face of the crown shield bridge, the other side of the case and lugs, as well as the edge of the bezel all operate in tandem to provide a high-end feel to a watch that otherwise could simply just come off as a block of brushed steel which tries too difficult to impress.
The first watch is a re-edition of the very first Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph from 1993. Yup, “The Beast” is back, and this re-edition Ref. 26237ST stays very much faithful to the original. It features a 42mm stainless steel case and bracelet and a blue “Petite Tapisserie” dial. Like the original, the re-edition also has blue rubber pushers for the chronograph and a screw-down crown. Unlike newer Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronographs that have sapphire display casebacks, the re-edition features a solid caseback engraved with the Royal Oak Offshore logo. Water-resistance is 100m. The main differences that we can see between this 2018 version and the original are extremely subtle, namely in the seconds track and ‘Swiss Made’ print on the periphery of the dial.
Inside the re-edition Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph beats the Caliber 3126/3840, the same movement used in other modern Royal Oak Offshore chronograph watches. Aside from the time, of course, this movement features chronograph and date complications, a 22k gold rotor, beats at 3Hz, and has a power reserve of 50 hours.
The new Royal Oak Offshore 42mm collection ought to be hitting retailers in early April 2014, and the cost for the steel versions is $25,600 on rubber straps and $26,000 about the hornback alligator straps, while the rose-gold model is $40,700 on the strap and $69,200 on the bracelet.Audemars Piguet rolled out some fairly impressive brand new hardware this season in SIHH, as per usual. While the focus over the last couple of years has been on their iconic Jumbo (which celebrated a 40th Anniversary in 2012 or some of their lesser known Haute Horology bits (such as the Jules Audemars Tourbillon), this season is all about that other group stalwart: The Royal Oak Offshore.The original Royal Oak Offshore was released to the public in 1993 as a follow up to Gerald Genta’s much applauded A-Series “Jumbo”. This was the second time Audemars Piguet took a serious gamble with all the Royal Oak, and the second time that they knocked it out of the park. But in 1993 it had been an absolute monster. Having an extra thick instance along with a beefy bracelet which looked like the original Gay Freres unit on steroids, it made quite the statement. In the past twenty decades, the Offshore collection has grown almost as much in size as it’s in variety of styles, and is now an icon in its own right, despite the fact that they have gotten so big that they’re downright unwearable by most a enthusiast.
Fortunately, it isn’t all teary-eyed past-reviving that’s happening at this anniversary – kudos to AP for that. Therefore, alongside the re-edition Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph, we see the launch of the new Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph, namely Ref. 26421ST and 26421OR, that have a completely new design in two different case materials.
Based on two earlier Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore F1 Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph watches, specifically the Ref. 26388PO (see our hands-on with it here) and 26288OR, these new Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph watches come in stainless steel and 18k rose gold respectively, and feature a new case design that has a thinner bezel and hence a more open dial. Even so, the distinctive Royal Oak Offshore design traits are all intact. The 45mm case is still angular, the bezel is still octagonal, and there’s no missing those exposed hexagonal screws on the bezel. Completing the look are black ceramic pushers for the chronograph and a screw-down crown. Water resistance is also 100m.
Audemars Piguet first introduced the 42mm Royal Oak Offshore back in 1993, but for 2014 the collection has received a major overhaul. You will find six new versions which will be replacing the current line-up in April 2014, also here we’ve got hands-on photographs of those six. They’ve a more elegant feel all about, with quite a few new information and modifications to the instances and dials, included long-awaited sapphire case backs.There are a number of big developments from the new 42mm Offshore collection. First off there is the lack of rubber on the case accents. Instead, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore F Series has gone with ceramic porcelain to get all these details, including the push pieces and crown. Additionally, these are edited to get a brand new update to the circumstance. The whole collection bears the mention 26470. The dials are extremely fine across the board. There’s the classic “Safari” combination, although the colors have been slightly tweaked and the watch has an overall more upscale feel to it. The Mega Tapisserie is sharp and the sub registers have circular graining for some extra texture. The hands are now faceted, which provides the dial a brighter look that’s truly simple to read at a glance.Turning the cases over, you’ll discover something conspicuously absent from such watches’ predecessors: a sapphire case back. This lets you have a fantastic look at the calibre 3126 modular chronograph movement (which utilizes an Audemars Piguet foundation calibre, of course). The rotors are all 22 carat gold and are decorated in normal AP fashion.There are six bits in the group, four in steel and also 2 in rose gold. The steel case can be paired with a navy and white, black and crimson, grey-on-grey, or “Safari” dial, all of which are accented by the dark ceramic pushers. All the straps feature tang buckles rather than the deployant claps located on the previous Offshores.
On the dial, one can see the exposed movement and the tourbillon at 9 o’clock. Opposite the tourbillon at 3 o’clock is the 30-minute counter for the chronograph. Also clearly visible are the two mainspring barrels. The skeletonized bridges extend from each of the eight screws in a way that is rather unique and ties the design of the case, dial, and movement together in a way few watches manage to do so.
These watches are powered by the in-house hand-wound Caliber 2947, which is an open-worked version of the Caliber 2933 found in the Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph Ref. 26388PO & 26288OR. This particular movement features 338 components, an integrated chronograph movement that has a column wheel mechanism, a beat rate of 3Hz, and a power reserve of a whopping 237 hours. Royal Oak Offshore fanatics are certainly eager to know the prices, and we will update the article when we are able to confirm. Each Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph 25th Anniversary model is limited to 50 pieces. audemarspiguet.com
