Offshore, as the “large-size sports model” of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph has launched countless models since its launch in 1993. But today, you can “completely forget” all the past models. Because, in 2021, Audemars Piguet has carried out a “complete upgrade” of the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph. Now Audemars Piguet’s Offshore Chronograph is mainly for men. These two are:
Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph, model 26238, size 42 mm, small chronograph dial “vertical” layout.
Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph, model 26420, size 43 mm, small chronograph dial “horizontal” layout.
Aude Piguet’s ceramics are comparable to gold.
Players familiar with Audemars Piguet know that the value of Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak/Royal Oak Offshore and ceramic watches are very high. Let’s not talk about the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar White Ceramic, which is much more expensive than the public price and worth more than one million. Let’s take the Offshore Chronograph 26238 Ceramic Case and 26238 Rose Gold Case on sale and compare them.
Audemars Piguet’s ceramics are really “comparable to gold”. One of the reasons is that the ceramic models of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak/Offshore are the top ceramic watches in the world of famous watches. Audemars Piguet’s treatment of ceramics is a real “jewelry level”.
The new Offshore Chronograph 26420 Ceramic model uses a black ceramic case, a green ceramic bezel, green ceramic buttons and a green ceramic crown. Except for some edge positions, the watch has a large area of brushed appearance. Let’s look at this brushing. Audemars Piguet’s brushing of ceramics is quite sharp, which is not seen on the ceramics of any other famous watches. Ceramic, because it is hard, needs to be polished with diamond powder, so the appearance of ceramic watches of general famous watch brands is relatively simple (simple polishing or matte). The brushed effect of the Audemars Piguet ceramic fashion men watch is exactly the same as the Royal Oak steel and gold watches, and the gloss of the ceramic makes the effect outstanding.
In addition to the main body of black ceramic and green ceramic, the Offshore Chronograph 26420 ceramic model also uses a little titanium for color matching, such as the crown shoulder and the crown cap, which are all made of titanium.
The Offshore Chronograph 26420 replaces the previous 44mm and 48mm Offshore Chronographs.
The Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph 26420 is a brand new model released in 2021. With a size of 43mm, the 26420 completely replaces all the previous 44mm, 48mm and other large-sized Offshore Chronographs. The 26420 watch has unified the world of “large-size Offshore Chronographs”. At the same time, not only is the size new, but the dial of the 26420 is also new. In the past, the three small counters of the offshore chronograph were “vertically arranged”, while the three small counters of 26420 have been changed to “horizontally arranged”. The 9 o’clock position is the 30-minute counter, the 3 o’clock position is the 12-hour counter, and the small second hand is at the bottom.
The “checkered pattern” on the dial is the iconic feature of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. The “checkered pattern” of the Royal Oak has small checkered patterns and large checkered patterns. Since the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph used small checkered patterns when it was born (1993), the style of the small checkered pattern is retro, and the style of the large checkered pattern is modern. The new offshore chronograph 26420 not only uses large checkered patterns, but also a large checkered pattern of a new design.
We can see that the large checkered pattern of the new offshore chronograph 26420 has an “X” shape connection between the checkered patterns, and the checkered patterns are all decorated with vertical patterns and chamfered. This is a new design of fake Audemars Piguet after 2021, and it has now begun to be popularized on the new offshore model. Like the new Offshore Chronograph 26238 black ceramic model and the new Offshore 15605 large three-hand model, they are already equipped with this “X” large checkered pattern. The 18K white gold hands and hour markers remain the same.
Now, including this Offshore Chronograph 26420, the main models of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak/Offshore/1159 chronographs on sale have been fully replaced with Audemars Piguet 4400 series automatic chronograph movements (this 26420 is specifically 4401). The 4400 series is Audemars Piguet’s new generation of automatic chronograph movements, launched in 2019, to replace Audemars Piguet’s self-produced 3126/3840 modular chronograph movements used in the past, and the purchased 2385 chronograph movement (FP1185).
Now, there are two Royal Oak Offshore Chronographs on sale, the 42mm 26238 and the 43mm 26420. In fact, the 42mm 26238 is more “faithful” to the first generation of the 1993 Offshore Chronograph; while the 43mm 26420 is a brand new design, and it is obviously more avant-garde and trendy. I think this is why Audemars Piguet retains two Offshore Chronographs.
Admittedly, the current public prices of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak/Offshore are not low, and the actual market price is still relatively high. But the Offshore is not acceptable to everyone because of its large size and thickness. Therefore, among the Royal Oaks, the Offshore is relatively easy to get. If you don’t care about the large size of the Offshore, then it will be a good choice among the Royal Oaks. moon-watch.co