Geneva luxury watchmakers Audemars Piguet celebrates its 25th anniversary with the Royal Oak Offshore Collection that features three new versions of their iconic Royal Oak sports watch. Baroque Access has all the details
In 2018 luxury Swiss horologists at Audemars Piguet will celebrate its 25th anniversary of the Royal Oak Offshore Collection, and to celebrate this, they are launching three brand new Royal Oak timepieces that they will be revealed at SIHH in 2018.
The iconic Royal Oak Offshore watch was first launched at Baselworld by Audemars Piguet in 1993, and it was one of the brand’s most successful models ever. Created from stainless steel, it set the trend for future iterations of Royal Oaks timespieces. To date, over 120 Royal Oak watches have been created, using different materials including platinum, gold, titanium and stainless steel.
The three new timepieces include an accurate re-edition of the original Royal Oak Offshore Self-Winding Chronograph, in addition to two versions of a completely new Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph. They have been revealed as part of the collection that Audemars Piguet will be showcasing at SIHH in Geneva in January 2018.
The re-edition of the original Royal Oak Offshore Self-Winding Chronograph is almost identical to its predecessor, the Caliber 3126/3840. It features a blue ‘Tapisserie’ dial and a solid stainless steel caseback with the ‘Royal Oak Offshore’ logo in the center, and a power reserve of 50 hours.
So what are the features of the new iteration of the original Royal Oak Offshore? For starters, it features a self-winding chronograph, the Royal Oak Offshore Tourbillon Chronograph with a contemporary dial design. The two models have been completely redesigned with a movement that was developed exclusively to honor the 25th anniversary of the Royal Oak Offshore Collection.
The new iteration of the original will be available in either stainless steel or 18-carat rose gold, with a limited edition of only 50 timepieces per version.
The two new models of the Royal Oak Offshore are both bold in design, with the bezel featuring most strongly, along with a completely redesigned hand-wound movement that features 353 parts, 30 jewels, and a dimension of 39.78mm x 11.6mm. An octagonal bezel with hexagonal screws surrounds the dial, while both the crown and pushpieces are ceramic.
The new models are powered by the hand-wound in-house caliber 2947 and a power reserve of seven days, which is most impressive.
Inspiration for all three brand new models of the Royal Oak Offshore came from previous timepieces created by Audemars Pieguet. Pricing of these exceptional timepieces will apparently be announced during SIHH 2018.