OFFSHORE ACCOUNT

5th July 2018

A quarter-century of steroidal, agenda-setting experimentation peaks this year with Audemars Piguet’s most daring Royal Oak Offshore collection yet. Words by Alex Doak.

When it comes to watches, what would you say constitutes a ‘modern classic’? For a deliberately anachronistic industry so wedded to its golden years, it’s rare to give credit to the watches that have made a difference since the industry’s luxury-oriented revival in the early 1990s. (Not to mention difficult, when so many ‘new’ designs turn out to be an updated ‘homage’, following yet another archive raid.)

But as a modern-day watchmaking heritage has emerged in recent years, several heroes of the late-20th/early-21st centuries have too – watches that can rightly claim ‘icon’ status while less adventurous brands continue to riff on the elder-statesmen models. Hublot’s chameleonic Big Bang comes to mind immediately, followed by the monolithic Bell & Ross BR 01. Even the retro touches of Bremont’s breakthrough ALT1-C round off a brilliantly contemporary take on the chronograph.

There is one stone-cold Modern Classic, with a capital M and C, which towers over these, however – one whose runaway success paved the way for all three of the aforementioned Noughties launches. And yet, despite it being the original enfant terrible of modern watch design, the Royal Oak Offshore has its roots firmly in the decade that taste forgot – ironic given how tasteful the original Royal Oak of 1972 still is.

Probably too tasteful, as it was a slow burner at the time, thanks to the alien proposition (at the time) of a luxurious steel sports watch. Coupled, one should say, with a pricetag similar to equivalent gold watches (everything to do with how tricky it was to machine and polish its revolutionary octagonal design in something as hard as steel).

That original Royal Oak never did particularly well until, curiously enough, it found particular favour with high-profile golfers. Then full acceptance came when, to mark its 20th anniversary, then-CEO Stephen Urquhart demanded a Royal Oak “for young people”. And by God they got one; albeit those young people who lived on the Riviera and drove white Ferrari’s.

THE ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE IS A STONE-COLD MODERN CLASSIC, WHICH PAVED THE WAY FOR OVERSIZED STATEMENT WRISTWEAR – THE ORIGINAL ENFANT TERRIBLE OF MODERN WATCH DESIGN

Of course, there were some detractors, some of whom went so far as to claim it was an insult to good taste – back then, the idea of a muscly 42mm watch was ridiculous. Even internally, the Offshore attracted the nickname ‘The Beast’ over the course of its troubled four-year gestation. When it was finally launched, a year later than planned, the Royal Oak’s designer Gérald Genta reportedly stormed into Audemars Piguet’s Baselworld stand yelling, “You killed my baby!”.

“Back in 1993, we thought the Royal Oak Offshore would die,” admits CEO Francois-Henry Bennahmias, “so much so that for the first few hundred watches, the casebacks were engraved ‘Royal Oak’, not ‘Royal Oak Offshore’.”

“If you have one of those few with just ‘Royal Oak’, keep it safe,” he adds wryly, “which is what might be called insider trading…”
The big watch needed a big personality to propel it onto the world stage. And it doesn’t get much bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 1999, the brand was approached by the Terminator himself – an established AP fanboy – to create a charitable watch. The resulting ‘End of Days’ limited edition was the brand’s first foray into limited runs, and became a huge success. Bennahmias hails the launch as his proudest moment from the Offshore’s lifetime, raising $1 million for Arnie’s All Star children’s foundation.

As well as being one of the very first all-black PVD-coated watches of the modern era, it opened the floodgates for all manner of limited runs in mix-and-match combo’s and avant-garde materials; paved the way for the era of the ‘statement watch’; opened the Swiss firmament to the idea of hooking up with pop-culture icons, from hip-hop to F1.

Of over 150 variants released over the years, over two-thirds consist of limited editions. Who can forget Schwarzenegger’s other outrageous ‘T3’ edition of 2003, measuring 54mm across, and still the biggest to date? Or the Shaquille O’Neal, Sashin Tendulkar, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Schumacher editions… The list of world-class sportsmen wooed by the adrenaline-pumped Royal Oak Offshore goes on and on.

“It was an incredibly creative time,” says Sebastian Vivas, director of AP’s brand heritage and museum. “In 2008 alone we launched more than 25 references and we had to refuse more than half of the requests that we got. Then from 2012 we started to go back in other direction – it was felt by the family members on the board that we had done too much with the celebs.”

More ‘complicated’ Offshores followed featuring perpetual calendars and chiming minute repeater functions, as well as the beefed-up 44mm chronograph of 2011 (the new camouflage version with khaki-ceramic bezel is our highlight of 2018) and even a bona fide diving-watch iteration, notable for its time-only as well as chronograph version.

Given all that, the 25th-anniversary headliner is a pleasant surprise: a re-edition that remains soberly faithful to the ’93 original, in dark blue and steel. Given the hoo-ha it originally caused, it almost seems meek by modern standards. But never ones to waste an opportunity to shock, Audemars Piguet’s other anniversary piece reinvents the Offshore in the most drastic way yet, cutting away most of the octagonal bezel and removing all of the tapisserie dial, suspending everything (including a whirling tourbillon carriage) from monumental, Brunel-esque struts.

The sunken, hyper-architectural effect is spectacular. But too much of a risk, given how sacred the Royal Oak of 1972 continues to be, chez AP? Not a chance – the Royal Oak Offshore is in a league of its own now, with any rebellious road ahead wide open.

“Despite that initial timidity in 1993, just engraving ‘Royal Oak’ on the back of the first Offshores,” says Bennahmias, “we definitely see the Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore as very separate lines at AP now.

The comparison I like to use is Hermès’ iconic Kelly and Birkin bags. Two classics from the same stable with very different vibes.”
Well put, we say.

Audemars Piguet is available online and at ROX Argyll Arcade

OFFSHORE MILESTONES

1997
The first limited-edition Offshore, commissioned by Arnold Schwarzenegger, named after his sci-fi film of 1999. Its success bred a pedigree of crazy specials.

2008
Despite the bulky ‘diver’ style of the Offshore, and the name of course, it was never billed as a proper diving watch. Until this time-only update, kitted with a helium-escape valve for prolonged deepsea ‘saturation’ dives.

2011
A limited edition made for Switzerland’s America’s Cup-winning Alinghi sailing team introduced ‘forged carbon’: an aerospace innovation that forges random strands of fibre in moulds, giving a marbled look.

CONTINUE READING

Geneva doesn’t ‘do’ post-Christmas blues – instead, all things haute and horological are celebrated with January’s spectacular SIHH trade fair and the LVMH group’s intimate Geneva Days showcase. As always, ROX was invited to the party, and we didn’t come back empty-handed…

Audemars Piguet’s men’s watches generally garner all the column inches but it takes just as much care and attention over its women’s collections, just with a little less fanfare. Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.

Audemars Piguet used to be all about the boys, but that looks set to change as Laura McCreddie-Doak finds out.