We will not hide that for us, this brand is one of the most beloved, and we always approach every piece that comes to us with great anticipation and excitement. It is for good reason that today we have the pleasure of writing about its representative from the more modern version, the so-called “ceramic pushers”.
The Royal Oak is precisely the most iconic model of Audemars Piguet, and the reasons for this are countless. Beginning its journey in the 1970s, thanks to the deft hand of Gérald Genta, this series has undergone numerous iterations, but a few things have never changed – the octagonal case, the “waffle” dial, the design of the lugs, etc.
In 2005, the Brand decided to respond to the modern trend of oversized cases and launched the new series of 42-millimeter chronographs, which also received what would become cult nicknames – Panda, Safari, Navy, Silver Themes, and Black Themes.
In 2014, AP launched a new, more modern series of 42s, with ceramic pushers and a transparent case back, and it was then that the manufacturer unleashed its imagination for the variations, and in addition to the new versions of the aforementioned, the “Elephant”, “Havana”, “Vampire”, “Navy” appeared… The expectations of all the brand's admirers grew, and the manufacturer sought to provide a wide variety of variations.
The model presented is part of the updated series of the so-called “ceramic 42s” which was introduced in 2018 and represents an upgraded version of what is perhaps the most popular and sought-after variant of the AP 42 – namely the “Vampire”. Here too, the main color is black with several red accents – this racing color can be seen on the tachymetric scale, the chronograph hands, and on the rubber strap. The difference from the previous version is that the bezel here is now ceramic – and this pairs very well with the ceramic crown and pushers.
As most of you probably know, in the first versions of its Offshore chronographs, AP used caliber 2226/2840; this was the case up to and including 2007, when this cult movement was replaced by the new in-house 3126/3840 – a modular chronograph based on the 3120 with a Dubois Depraz chronograph module – operating at the usual AP frequency of 21,600 vibrations, with 365 parts, 59 jewels, over 50 hours of power reserve, and to emphasize the noble origin of the movement, the balance is crafted from 22-karat gold. The difference between the Offshore Chronograph with the old movement can be traced in the change of the reference number – for the new ones, it becomes 26170ST, and the other main difference is that the new versions now also have an anti-reflective coating on the date magnifier.
