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Thirty years since the first-ever Royal Oak Offshore timepiece, the Swiss watchmaker introduces a range of new men’s and women’s automatic chronographs
Thirty years on from the first-ever Royal Oak Offshore timepiece, Audemars Piguet is celebrating the anniversary with the release of several new references, including a range of diamond- and gemstone-adorned women’s models, as well as four new black ceramic automatic chronographs.
While the model is now generally recognised as a cult classic, it took the watchmaking fraternity a little while to come to terms with the bold aesthetic of the Royal Oak Offshore. In fact, legendary watch designer and the father of the original Royal Oak Gérald Genta even famously dubbed it “a sea elephant” when the first model came out in 1993.
Of course, after it became a hit with the younger generation of horologists, it was only a matter of time before the Offshore was given a more affectionate nickname: “The Beast”, which would gain more traction with the 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger collaboration on the Royal Oak Offshore End of Days limited edition.
The End of Days model has now been given a refresh, with the 30th-anniversary edition one of the four new automatic chronographs crafted almost entirely from extremely hard-wearing and non-malleable black ceramic—save a few titanium details and steel screws that attach the octagonal bezel to the case. This new reference is powered by Audemars Piguet’s latest self-winding chronograph movement, Calibre 4401, which comes with column wheel and flyback functions.
The other new ceramic models comprise the Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph 42mm, housed in the model’s first-ever black ceramic case with a matching bracelet and a black Petite Tapisserie dial; a new version of its 43mm Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph that unites black ceramic with yellow gold accents; and the 43mm Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph, which pairs black ceramic with green accents and shows off its Calibre 2967 movement through a sapphire crystal caseback.
The women’s selection, meanwhile, consists of four 37mm self-winding chronographs executed in a choice of 18-karat pink gold, yellow gold or stainless steel, featuring a variety of new details that align with the collection’s 2021 design evolution, including a Lady Tapisserie motif, with slightly wider truncated pyramids than featured on previous versions. All four new models are powered by the Swiss luxury watch brand’s self-winding chronograph, Calibre 2385, which also displays the hours, minutes, small seconds and date.