Audemars Piguet - How about another special AP Royal Oak Chronograph?

Our AP forum has been very actively
lately with all the special Royal Oak chronographs. I’d like
to share a few pictures from my archives of a relatively rare piece, the
Royal Oak Chronograph Dubail Limited
Edition.

I was
inspired by posting these pics from posts like the white gold Royal Oak
Chronograph by our AP Moderator MichaelC: Please
click here

And the rare prototype F1
Indianapolis 2000 by Koen S.: Please
click here

And ‘just because’ by our esteemed PuristS
Dr. Mao with the unique piece prototype Royal Oak Chronograph City of
Sails. I still remember seeing this in person way back in 2008
during the PuristS-On-Tour visiting Piaget and Audemars Piguet in
Switzerland. Please
click here

Actually it was after the PuristS-On-Tour trip that I
ventured over to the beautiful city of Paris, France for several
days. We wandered around Paris and visited all the watch
boutiques with several PuristS Moderators. At Place Vendome we
were warmly welcomed by the staff at Dubail and they presented us this
special Royal Oak Chronograph. It was produced in a limited
edition of 50 pieces and back then there were only 2
available.

At first glance, it resembled a typical
Royal Oak Chronograph. When I first picked up the watch, I
definitely knew it was not stainless steel. The bezel and case
is made in platinum, and you can feel the dense solid heft on the wrist
even though it was on a strap. Both the bezel and case has
alternating brushed and polished surfaces. As MichaelC has
mentioned in previous posts, unique details on the previous precious
metal versions have square hour markers instead of the standard stick
markers. I love the ‘AP’ logo at the 12 o’clock
position. The
subdials are very similar to the white gold version, and has red
chronograph hands that matches well with the main sweep seconds
hands. The dial is dark gray with the mega tapisserie pattern,
and the subdials are black which make it easily readable with the
contrasting red hands. The Dubail edition is paired with a
black leather strap with matching red stitching and a stainless steel
deployant buckle.

The other really
interesting detail is viewed from the transparent caseback.
The rotor is blacked PVD with the Dubail logo engraved on it.
IMO it’s a really cool feature and very unique. The movement
is the Audemars Piguet caliber 2385 self-winding chronograph
movement. The 2385 is 5.5mm thin and has a diameter of
26.20mm. It fits nicely in the platinum Royal Oak
case. Power reserve is rated at 40 hours. It has a
screw down crown for manual winding and setting the time.
There’s also a rapid date set feature activated by the crown.
Like other Royal Oak chronographs the pushers are also have screw down
protectors for water resistance.
Besides the limited
edition of 50 pieces in platinum, there were 5 pieces made that was
covered in precious stones.

After our visit to Dubail, we also stopped by
Chronopassion, which had another really cool special edition made for
their store. It wasn’t a Royal Oak Chronograph, but a Royal
Oak Offshore model that was made in titanium with a sandblasted
finish. The Chronopassion model had a special dark grey dial
and looked great. More fun things to see there was a Royal Oak
Offshore titanium bracelet. No watch just all bracelet links
an the clasp which was really cool to see. I’ll look for pics
of these Offshores and will post in a separate
thread.