Connected to the white Royal Oak Offshore Diver is a white rubber strap. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Leather Strap obviously uses an extremely high-quality rubber that looks and feels amazing. Rubber isn’t made equally, so once you get to handle its very best forms it makes going back to economical rubberized… unpleasant. The whitened rubber is paired to a titanium buckle, and the whole thing just works together nicely.In my opinion this could be “the white eye” to start for those guys who are mighty skeptical of that whole “dudes wearing white watches” item. Frankly, it really depends on your style and in which you live. Find yourself in a warm town or coastal city like Los Angeles or Miami? Then a white watch is going to fit in just fine. Have you been stationed in New York City or London during the winter? If so then you might want to keep this at a box to the summer months. People today understand that I don’t have any desire to wear feminine watches so when I say these are cool it’s because they’re in a really masculine type of way. Still not to white watches? That is cool – you still have way too many choices out there to pick from. Price for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver in white ceramic is $23,900. There are some watches out there that, one might feel, appear to have always been around. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph works so well as a natural expansion to the Diver collection which, to me, it is definitely such an opinion. A few weeks ago at SIHH 2016, Audemars Piguet finally improved their “ROO Diver” — originally released at SIHH 2010 — by including a chronograph function to it. Do the math, and you’ll find that It took six years for the brand to make the first significant, important update to this collection. To make up for that lengthy wait, the Le Brassus-based manufacture was not one, but four different color choices. Here is our hands-on appearance.
At the watch trade show SIHH 2015, Audemars Piguet has quietly released a few extremely loud watches that are full pave diamond-covered versions of various Royal Oak Offshore collection timepieces. While Audemars Piguet has historically been known for purist watch making and traditional design, the brand today is split between offering luxury lifestyle timepieces as well as those rich with Swiss watch making heritage. Those who are mostly interested in the latter will likely scoff at Royal Oak watches in all diamonds, but it is true that Audemars Piguet – especially the Royal Oak Offshore – is an extremely popular watch with individuals who enjoy showing off status and wealth.
2015 sees three versions of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore in all diamonds – including a few models with matching full diamond-set bracelets. The watches all emphasize large baguette-cut diamond stones as well as a few versions highlighted with various colors for style, as well as legibility. The largest of the new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore pieces with diamonds is the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 44mm Ref. 26403BC.ZZ.8044BC.01. There is also a version of the 44mm model on a black alligator strap with the reference 26403BC.ZZ.D002CR.01 that has about 18 carats of diamonds and a few onyx stones on the dial used as hour markers.
Given the base watch’s modern design I really never could have envisioned this new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 44mm (aBlogtoWatch hands-on debut here) fully covered in diamonds. In pictures, it is easy to tell the 44mm wide version from the smaller 42mm wide version because of the more elaborate and angular chronograph pushers (versus simple and round pushers on the smaller case).
In 2016, the luxury watch business (and many of its peers) are still in a stage where to get a renowned manufacture to debut colorful new bits can be widely regarded as a “controversial move.” I can not help but feel inclined to point to the numerous, much more pressing business issues, that we covered at length here — matters which should possibly arrive earlier than being fearful of a new “losing it” just because it surfaced several brilliant watches.Sure, whether you would want to put on a bright yellow (or green, or orange, or blue) see or not is surely down to a personal taste, but to unexpectedly find a new to be “controversial” or “polarizing” for its use of colours on a sporty set may be just one unnecessary step too far in watch-snobbery. While the deemed failure or success of color schemes might just be down to personal taste, I can only applaud it when brands depart behind their customary — and, for the most part, not quite intriguing — black-silver-white colorways and dare think out of the box a little. In a time when this overwhelmingly large number of high-end brands dedicate most all their focus to “legacy,” “tribute,” “anniversary,” and “classic,” to see something as entertaining, unapologetic, and bold as the newest ROO Diver Chronograph, was a truly refreshing experience… even though, technically, it is founded on a 1972 layout.
While the straps felt very comfortable right from the moment of first putting the watch on — no unneeded stiffness or abrasive texture from the supple material used — in my experience, brightly colored rubber straps have a tendency to get dirty way too readily, with glowing yellowish ones picking up the slightest quantity of dirt and revealing it all around the edges of the strap. While there are no out-of-the-box bracelet-equipped models of the new Diver Chronograph, I would really like to see one of these more vibrantly colored dials paired into a stainless steel bracelet, as that could make the colors of the dials stand out even more.As I stated at first, the new Diver Chronograph is an addition to a successful set that will have been around for some time now — AP only has taken their time with it and released it now. And while we’ve been seeing a growing number of major brands phase out and upgrade their latest versions more and more frequently, the timing of the release informs me that we might need to wait a while before Audemars Piguet delivers a completely integrated, in-house chronograph movement.The lack of some blue-blooded chronograph movement will turn some off, along with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph’s steep cost of $27,900 is really a high barrier, even at nearly double what the non-chronograph diver ran for when it debuted… Still, with all this noticed, the Audemars Piguet workmanship, a situation quality scarcely matched by others even in this price point, and a colorful and striking Royal Oak vibe will more than likely suffice to convince many that what is among the coolest and perhaps most “polarizing” AP’s of overdue is going to be a worthy purchase.
Each of these full pave watches come exclusively in 18k white gold cases, where up to literally a few dozen carats of diamonds will be set. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 44mm will have 53 carats of stones on the case and bracelet and another 6.53 carats of stones on the dial. That is almost 60 total carats of diamonds and hundreds of baguette-cut diamonds. Unfortunately, the jewelry version of this and the other Royal Oak Offshore watches alters the water resistance of the cases to only 20 meters. You might want to call it a “Royal Oak Onshore” in that case.
Inside the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 44mm and 42mm watches is the Audemars Piguet caliber 3126/3840 automatic chronograph movements that operate at 3Hz with a 50 hour power reserve. The back of the watch has a sapphire crystal caseback with a view of the movement. The smaller ladies versions of the Audemars Piguet Quartz Royal Oak Offshore watches contain calibre 2176 quartz movements.
If the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 44mm model is too large for you but you still want a full pave watch case and bracelet, there is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 42mm ref. 26473BC.ZZ.8043BC.01 that has a full white gold case and bracelet covered with diamonds in a very similar style as the slightly larger version. The 42mm has over 600 diamonds and about 55 carats of stones. Audemars Piguet is also offering a few strap versus bracelet variants of these “exceptional” Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 42mm models for 2015 in carious colors.
Like the 44mm wide Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph on the strap the 42mm models with all the diamonds are available with a black alligator strap and matching dial elements (ref. 26473BC.ZZ.D002CR.01), as well as an additional blue version with diamonds accented with blue sapphires.
The 35mm caliber is placed in a high-tech forged carbon case measuring 44mm. The height of the watch is 14mm, adapting to the construction specs of this ROO which is intended to be large all-around regardless of the complications placed inside. With its trademark checkerboard pattern, the component that everybody loves is the outside edge of the dial using a transparent sapphire crystal ring allowing you to see the rotor swing back and forth. The Scalextric effect is actually cool and will have you gazing at the dial for hours. And, being the rotor performs its rotations under the dial, a huge gear set at 1 o’clock in the dial goes in time into the rotor.I’m afraid that is the equipment of the discontent. The aperture at 1 o’clock houses the equipment in addition to the bridge which keeps it in position. The distance required to accommodate the elements means that the 30-minute subdial of the chronograph was decreased in size while the conducting seconds subdial in the left maintains the same proportions as the 2011 model.The tourbillon — another of the 25 tourbillons developed by the fabrication – lies within an aperture at 6 o’clock. Each of the different-sized apertures on the dial create an unbalanced impact and might not be to everyone’s liking.Personally, I would have liked the bridge of their gear train at 1 o’clock concealed under the dial. The tapisserie-pattern checker board motif of this Royal Oak family is so omnipresent that we take it for granted, but it has turned into one of the very underrated dial decorations from watchmaking history, also viewed up close, you can love the delicate guilloché work. It produces a subtle and beautiful game of light across the surface of the dial. That is why, for me, the more of the tapisserie there is on the dial, the better.A series of improvements are integrated in this version including a better coupling lever and the optimization of these shapes and positions of the springs and levers, so just the slightest pressure is required to activate the chronograph.
Women get three versions of the diamond-covered “exceptional” Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Rose Gold 44mm Royal Oak Offshore watches. The reference 67543BC.ZZ.D002CR.01 has a black alligator strap and green emeralds on the dial with about 290 diamonds (16 carats) and another 12 baguette-cut emeralds. There is a similar ladies Royal Oak Offshore with a pink alligator strap and matching pink sapphires on the dial.
The ultimate diamond-covered new for 2015 Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore is also 37mm wide in a full 18k white gold case and bracelet totally covered with diamonds. This is the reference 67543BC.ZZ.9185BC.01 and it has about 46 carats of diamonds all over it. While each of these full pave Audemars Piguet Royal Oak offshore watches is not a limited edition, they are strictly limited production and sold on order only and most often exclusively via Audemars Piguet brand boutiques. audemarspiguet.com
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Audemars Piguet – AP’s amazing Royal Oak Offshore reference 26470
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The Review Of The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Tourbillon Chronograph Watch Hands-On
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