Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Watches

About Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Watches

Audemars Piguet first introduced the Royal Oak Offshore in 1993. The watch has a colorful history that starts with a controversy. The issue was with its inspiration: the original Royal Oak.

The original Royal Oak was arguably the most significant model in the history of the company. It helped Audemars Piguet rebound from the slump of the Quartz Crisis. In many ways, the model came to define the brand. The legendary Gerald Genta was behind the design of the original Royal Oak. The model was a masterpiece. It was inventive, unconventional, and filled a void in the marketplace. The Royal Oak opened up an entirely new breed of watch: the luxury sport watch. It wasn’t an instant success when it debuted in 1972. However, it ultimately became the centerpiece of the Audemars Piguet brand.

Fast forward two decades later to the development of the Royal Oak Offshore. Audemars Piguet had tasked designer Emmanuel Gueit with creating a larger variation of the iconic Royal Oak. The brand was trying to appeal to the younger, up and coming generation of watch buyers who were beginning to favor designs that were more oversized.

In addition to the striking new size, Gueit introduced a number of other updates to the original Royal Oak design. First is the rubber gasket that lines the area under the bezel. This addition was both aesthetic and functional. It certainly upped the ante on the watch’s sporty appeal and provided additional water resistance. The new look played out consistently through the watch’s design with the use of silicon rubber pushers for the chronograph.

Audemars Piguet unveiled the new model at the annual BaselWorld trade show. Almost immediately, it garnered the nickname “The Beast” for its imposing oversized design. Genta himself was quick to give the watch his stamp of disapproval. Just like the original Royal Oak, the Offshore was instantly controversial and polarizing. However, just as with the original, Audemars Piguet was on to something.

The brand was once again tapping into unchartered territory. Gueit’s use of the rubber gasket and silicon rubber pushers foreshadowed a new movement in watchmaking: the use of experimental materials not traditional to watchmaking. Now, it has become increasingly commonplace and oftentimes praised for companies to integrate unconventional materials into their designs. Many of the top and more mainstream brands employ materials like ceramic, titanium, or PVD. Yet, back in 1993 it was more unexpected.

Today, the Royal Oak Offshore has solidified its place alongside the original Royal Oak as a permanent fixture of the Audemars Piguet catalog. The model has gone on to further push the limits with more exotic materials, such as forged carbon.