There are several watches out there that, one might feel, appear to have always been around. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph works thus well as a natural extension to the Diver collection that, to me, it is certainly such a watch. A couple weeks ago at SIHH 2020, Audemars Piguet finally enhanced their “ROO Diver” – originally launched at SIHH 2010 – by adding a chronograph function to it. Do the math, and you’ll find that It took six years for the brand to make the first considerable, major update to this collection.
This version sees a return to a steel case, however that is because Audemars Piguet welcomes a new member to the Royal Oak Offshire Diver family with the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph. For the case, Audemars Piguet uses their 41mm-wide Royal Oak case (water resistant to 50 meters) and I am quite curious as to how thick it is. I easily anticipate that future years will see even more versions of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph in more classical color tones, as well as more case materials. A look at the structure reveals a design that appears to fix two balance wheels to a central pinion, and each balance wheel has its own weighting as well as hairspring.
Powering the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph is the in-house made Audemars Piguet calibre 3124/3841 automatic chronograph movement that we last saw fitted into an totally diverse style of cheap replica watch in the Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Chronograph. To make up for that lengthy wait, the Le Brassus-based manufacture premiered not one, however four diverse color options. Here’s our hands-on look.Watch trade show sees a lot of new Audemars Piguet watches including the brand new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph for 2020 – that arrives in four very summery, fun color schemes. In the long run, this will lead to benefits for consumers, as it is the merely viable option to allow for price stability and gradual elimination of the gray market (which actually causes retail prices to go up). While this might seem like an arbitrary way to get customers in to brand boutiques, it is part of an important and larger overall strategy in the watch industry to focus on more vertical integration as brands both produce watches and sell them directly to customers.
Very attractive in its design, the calibre 3132 is as well an automatic with 45 hours of power reserve operating at a frequency of 3Hz (21,600 bph). The calibre 3124/3841 is made up of 364 parts and operates at 3Hz (21,600 bph). Once again, I am going to chime in requesting that Audemars Piguet develop a 4Hz chronograph movement for their sport watches. Other watches out there have attempted to increase accuracy by having two (or more) distinct balance wheels on the movement which operated in tandem however separately. The fake Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver was not merely intended to be the brand’s first serious diving watch, however was as well meant to offer a cleaner time-merely dial.
It is produced from 245 parts and, of course, in this execution is richly “Offshore Diver” and hand-decorated. Notice the 18k pink gold balance bridge which is a welcome aesthetic feature. Writing about the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph, I am reminded of the high-quality rubber strap that not merely has a nice non-slip texture, however helps this watch fit amazingly comfortably. On the dial, both the steel and pink gold version of the Royal Oak Offshore Diver watches have pink gold hands and hour markers.It is likely that the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Chronograph will be slightly thicker than the three-hand Diver, however I think that wearing comfort will be similar.
To innovate several much needed contrast to all this muscle-flexing, the thin, polished and beveled edge that runs along the side of the crown protector bridge, the side of the case and lugs, and as well the edge of the bezel all work in tandem to give a high-end feel to a watch that otherwise could easily just come off as a block of brushed steel that tries too hard to impress.