We will not hide the fact that, for us, this brand is one of our absolute favourites, and we always approach every offer we manage to find with a certain thrill and hidden excitement.
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 this are countless. Beginning its journey in the 1970s, thanks to the light hand of Gérald Genta, this series has gone through numerous editions, 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 what later became cult nicknames – Panda, Safari, Navy, Silver Themes and Black Themes.
In 2014, AP launched a new, more modern series of 42 mm models, with ceramic pushers and a transparent caseback, and at that point the manufacturer truly let its imagination run wild with the variations. In addition to the new versions of the models listed above, “Elephant”, “Havana”, “Vampire”, “Navy” and others appeared… The expectations of all fans of the brand continued to grow, and the manufacturer tried to provide a wide variety of variations.
The model presented today is part of the brand’s latest series in the most popular case size – 42 mm. It was introduced in 2019 and represents an upgraded version. The differences, apart from the case thickness reduced by almost 2 mm and the rectangular pushers, are also in the movement used and, as a result, in the layout of the subdials. In this case, they are arranged in a “smile” configuration. This particular model is the so-called “Navy” – the main colour is blue, with white subdials. The other specific feature of the model is that the case is made of titanium – in this way, the entire watch becomes much lighter than the steel version.
As most of you probably know, in the first versions of their Offshore chronographs, AP used calibre 2226/2840. This continued up to and including 2007, when this cult movement was replaced by the new in-house 3126/3840 – based on the 3120 modular chronograph with a Dubois Dépraz chronograph module, operating at the usual AP frequency of 21,600 vibrations, with 365 parts, 59 jewels and over 50 hours of power reserve. Here, however, a different movement is already used – Audemars Piguet Caliber 2385 – a modular chronograph based on the well-known Frédéric Piguet 1185, with 37 jewels and over 40 hours of power reserve.
