Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Carbon – 26400AU.OO.A002CA.01

If you have never heard of Gerald Genta, and you have an interest in luxury watches, stop what you're doing and look him up. This guy was to watch design what Leonardo da Vinci was to helicopters. One of the true design geniuses of the 20th century, Genta created more iconic watches in his lifetime than most of us have had hot dinners. And one of the most famous of them all is the Royal Oak, designed for Audemars Piguet in 1971.
The story of the Royal Oak's design is one of those tales that luxury watch lovers tell their kids at night, if they want them to grow up to be designers.
It is some two or three days before the Basel watch fair of 1971 (now known as Baselworld). It is 4pm. And Gerald Genta gets a commission from Georges Golay, the then-MD of AP. His instructions are simple. And they will change the world of luxury watchmaking forever.
Golay wants Genta to create a completely new kind of luxury sports watch, something that will make the world of haute horlogerie sit up and pay attention.
Genta works through the night and comes up with an octagonal bezel in stainless steel, which features revealed screws holding the bezel to a solid, waterproof case. Based on the helmet of a 'scaphander' (a deep-sea diver's outfit), the Royal Oak is an instant success.
It is a tribute to Genta's brilliance that the design of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Carbon 26400AU.OO.A002CA.01 is basically unchanged from those first 1971 models. The Offshore version of the Royal Oak is slightly bigger, and has stainless steel screws (the smaller, more classical Royal Oak has white gold screws). The 44 mm case of the chronograph is in forged carbon, with a black ceramic bezel. But the identity of this luxury watch, from its relatively slender profile (the Royal Oak Offshore Carbon has a case depth of 14.11 mm) to the 'mega tapisserie' pattern on the dial, is Gerald Genta through and through.
Both the crystal and caseback are in glareproof sapphire, allowing a perfect view of the dial, subdials and movement. The black tapisseried dial contrasts beautifully with the smooth black counters. The hour markers are in white gold and applied with a good quantity of lume, as are the Royal Oak hands. The inner bezel is black and has a tachymetric scale printed in white.
You'll see a Calibre 3126/3840 self-winding chronograph beating away behind the exhibition caseback. There is a beauty of design to be found in the visible operation of a movement of this quality, and as ever with AP calibres the chronograph in this luxury watch is enhanced by a superb degree of finishing. The gold rotor is embossed with the coats-of-arms for the Audemars and Piguet families, and the bridges are delicately done, polished with an inverted snailing. The bridge bevels are diamond-graved.
The movement features an instantaneous jumping date (midnight). Stop-seconds achieves precise time setting. The screw-lock crown and chrono pushers are in black ceramic, with the pushers protected by titanium guards. The sweeping lines of these guards emphasise the classic shape of the Royal Oak case, adding muscle to the polished carbon of the case.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Carbon 26400AU.OO.A002CA.01 is presented on a black rubber strap fixed with a titanium pin buckle. Water resistant to 100 m, this is a solid tool watch with surprising depths of beauty in its details—and a fitting legacy for the genius of Gerald Genta .
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Image Credit – officialwatches.com vedere di piu rolex falso e Hermes Carre H