Designed for power boat racing and watersports, Audemars Piguet has tied up again with the actor turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger on a 500 piece edition of its Royal Oak Offshore design with a self winding mechanism. It is entirely made in black ceramic and titanium and boasts an octogonal face measuring 42mm, with neon yellow accents and weighs in at 103 grams.
The first model using the Calibre 4401 movement was launched 30 years ago - the invention of Diekr Wettendgel and Carlo de Marchi - with the bold design capturing adventure seekers worldwide and the legions of fans around the iconic Cigarette powerboat Bullet 31 that slaps through the waves in Miami Vice. The first Royal Oak meanwhile was the brainchild of Gerald Genta in 1972. Today, away from petrol guzzling powerboats, the model is more likely to be found on the wrists of paddle boarders and kite surfers.
AP OffShore Specs
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Audemars Piguet was founded in 1875 in Le Brassus, in the Vallee de Joux (north of Geneva), the epi-center of high-end Swiss watchmaking by Jules Luis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet, who were expert watch movement makers. Today the HQ resides in original workshops built in 1907 which draw on natural resources including iron ore and the workshop The Manufacture des Forges in Le Brussus welcomes hundreds of engineers and craftspeople to study the craft and technique. The town is also home to the Musee Atelier Audemans Piguet, a spiraling building that pays tribute to the prowess of this family owned independent company. That’s one very nice slice of watchmaking history packed into this piece.
