Chronographe Royal Oak Offshore

FORWARD-THINKING

This year at Audemars Piguet, is the year of the Royal Oak Offshore – a watch that is still as innovative, forward-thinking and rebellious as when it burst onto the traditionally conservative luxury-watch scene in 1993. For 2014, six new iterations of the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 42mm are being launched, boasting a more technical, sculpted aesthetic as well as black ceramic pushpieces and crown. What is more, the new Royal Oak Offshore Diver, sculpted entirely in white ceramic and therefore virtually scratchproof.

For lifelong fans and newcomers alike, these novelties serve to highlight Audemars Piguet’s ongoing commitment to technical progress, and this family-owned company’s spirit of independence; the perfect embodiment of the  Manufacture’s motto, “to break the rules, you must first master them.”

A NOBLE LINEAGE

The Royal Oak Offshore design – so perfect it has barely changed in two decades – echoes that of the virile, iconic Royal Oak, whose octagonal, stainless-steel facets so shook up the peaceful scene of classic, round, gold watches. However, the Royal Oak Offshore was even sturdier, sportier and more masculine. When it was first introduced in 1993, no one would have entertained the idea of a 42 mm watch in the early Nineties! But it proved to be a pioneer – it singlehandedly set the trend for uncompromising, oversized watches that has continued ever since.

While the first models were in stainless steel, gold and platinum, Audemars Piguet’s renowned, forward-thinking approach to high-tech materials was soon applied to the Royal Oak Offshore. Titanium appeared very early, and during the 2000s the Manufacture introduced carbon, ceramics, cermet and rubber.

Beneath that groundbreaking exterior, the Royal Oak Offshore has remained mechanically traditional, as one would expect from a ‘Maison’ with as many years of savoir-faire as Audemars Piguet. Made in the Vallée de Joux by the last historical watchmaking house owned by the founding families, it respects all the criteria of Haute Horlogerie, its movements hand-decorated and hand-assembled – even in the models without sapphire-crystal casebacks.

Of the many limited editions among the Royal Oak Offshore models, nearly half have related to the car-racing and sports worlds while others have been linked to country commemorations and boutique series.
 
THE ‘26470’ EVOLUTION

New for 2014, the ‘26470’ Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Collection maintains the original 42 mm ‘supersize’ of 1993, yet moves things on for the first time from its 26170 predecessors.

An evolution of these groundbreaking timepieces, the new references are available in stainless steel or 18-carat pink gold, and are distinguished by a more technical, sculpted aesthetic, as is notably visible in the design of the pushpiece guards, the crown and the pushpieces. Black ceramic replaces rubber on the crown and pushpieces, which have been resized to create a more contemporary look.

The bezel is in satin-brushed and polished stainless steel or 18-carat pink gold, secured by eight polished steel hexagonal screws – the bold, immutable signature of the Royal Oak Offshore collection.

Every dial is decorated with the Royal Oak Offshore’s distinctive, waffle-like ‘Méga Tapisserie’ pattern. The more sculpted and refined hour-markers lend an additional technical touch. Moreover, the new facetted hands with polished decorative fillets surrounding the hour markers, counters and date window, together with the use of a luminescent coating, make the dial more radiant and ensure enhanced readability of the time indications.

A polished white- or pink-gold appliqué presents our brand initials, along with the ‘Audemars Piguet’ logo transferred in white on a raised cartouche. The dial colour is echoed on the date disc in order to accentuate the overall uniformity.

Attached to the 26470 collection’s stainless-steel or gold case is either a rubber or alligator strap, featuring a broader taper and a new pin buckle, both of which ensure greater comfort and user-friendliness.

The 2014 Royal Oak Offshore Collection moves the game on once more. The engraved 22-carat gold oscillating mass is now visible through the sapphire caseback, a window onto 139 years of horological mastery.