We will not hide that, for us, this brand is one of our favourites, and we always approach every offer that reaches us with excitement and a certain hidden thrill. It is no coincidence that today, for the first time, we will have the pleasure of writing about this model – quite simply, until now we had not managed to find one at a sufficiently interesting price.
For us, and probably for many other people as well, the Royal Oak is the most iconic model of Audemars Piguet, and the reasons for that are countless. Beginning its journey in the 1970s thanks to the light hand of Gérald Genta, this series has gone through many iterations, but several things have never changed – the octagonal case, the “waffle” dial, the design of the lugs, and so on.
In 2005, the brand decided to respond to the modern trend for larger cases and launched the new series of 42 mm chronographs, which also received nicknames that have since become cult classics – Panda, Safari, Navy, Silver Themes and Black Themes.
In 2011, following the trend towards larger cases and dimensions, the brand presented the AP ROO 26400 at SIHH. This model automatically became highly sought after by all admirers of the brand and allowed the manufacturer to permanently establish this case in its collection to this day. In 2018, the model presented today was launched – and with its, to put it mildly, “different design”, it polarised the community of the brand’s enthusiasts, but also became highly sought after and, accordingly, valuable. The model was produced for only one year, immediately received the nickname “Combat” or “Camouflage”, and achieved major market success. Thanks to this, a few years later the brand launched two new limited Camouflage models – green and blue – but the one presented today has the honour of being the first, and only this one is called Combat. The differences compared with the standard versions of the steel AP 44 are several, and all of them are visible to the naked eye – green ceramic on the bezel, crown and pushers, the beige colour of the dial and, of course, the camouflage strap.
As most of you probably know, in the first versions of its Offshore chronographs, AP used calibre 2226/2840. This continued until 2007 inclusive, when this cult movement was replaced by the new in-house 3126/3840 – based on the 3120 modular chronograph with a Dubois Depraz chronograph module, operating at the usual AP frequency of 21,600 vibrations, with 365 parts, 59 jewels and over 50 hours of power reserve. And to emphasise the noble origin of the movement, the balance is made of 22-carat gold.
