This, in a nutshell (or rather a movement case), is the personality of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Replica Watch. Pride in the unbroken family lineage of the brand. Pride in the detail and perfection of the calibre. And pride in the finished concept of the watch. You see, Audemars Piguet is something of an anomaly in the modern world of luxury watchmaking. Its continuous relationship with its founding families has given it an independence not many fine watchmakers can claim. Many of the world’s most recognisable luxury watch brands are enmeshed in a behind-the-scenes web of interconnecting companies and ownerships. AP is different. It is master of its own destiny: and this has led it down two spectacularly different horological paths. To some, Audemars Piguet is the manufacturer of ultra-high-end dress watches, which employ novel technology to create ever-more-sophisticated horological statements. To others, it’s the brand that invented the boldest, brashest concept watch in history, and completely reinvented the idea of the sports watch.
Audemars Piguet is not the oldest manufacturer of luxury watches in Switzerland—at less than 200 years old, the company is more a middle-aged but respectable citizen than a distinguished old buffer. But it is the oldest family-run watchmaker. Since its inception in 1875, Audemars Piguet has continuously manufactured fine watches in the Vallée de Joux, a Swiss region legendary for its association with haute horlogerie. And it has always done so under the direction of members of the Audemars and Piguet families.
The official 1875 birth date of the Audemars Piguet brand reflects the moment at which two watchmaking families joined forces. The actual watchmaking roots of the company can be traced back much further, to the origins of fine watch manufacture in the Vallée de Joux itself. 18th-century farmers subsisting in the valley began to make watches as a way to expand their income during long, unforgiving winters. The raw materials for the work – iron oxide, and the wood to burn for smelting it – existed on their doorstep. And so Le Brassus, and the Vallée de Joux region as a whole, became a cradle of early watchmaking.
Independently, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Replica families mastered the craft (an 18th-century pocket watch bearing the signature of Joseph Piguet still exists today). And then, in the 19th century, the founding fathers of AP, Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet, created their company to manufacture complicated watch movements. A complicated movement is a calibre that performs functions other than simply telling the time—keeping track of the date, for example, or ringing a minute repeater. This obsession with complications has lasted throughout Audemars Piguet’s unbroken family history, whether it is evident in the simple jumping date of the Royal Oak, or the ‘quadriannual’ calendar of the Millenary Quadriennium.
It’s almost ironic, then, that a luxury watch brand so devoted to the inner workings of fine watchmaking should have made its biggest public splash with a case design. In 1972, Audemars Piguet unveiled a new kind of luxury sports watch at the Basel watch fair. This legendary timepiece was designed by Gerald Genta, the polymath creator who was also responsible for Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and IWC’s Ingenieur. Its impact was immediate. The Royal Oak’s octagonal bezel, revealed screws and integrated stainless-steel bracelet created a sports watch that was powerful, arresting, and utterly different. It is the look that still defines all modern sports watches. So strong is the Royal Oak’s personality that 21st-century sports watches either resemble it, or spend so much time trying not to look like it that their appearance is still defined by Genta’s design.
The Royal Oak’s anatomy is part of the history of luxury watch design. Its bezel, brushed on the face and highly polished on its edges, is a masterclass in the creation of depth and weight. Its tapisseried dial adds texture and variation. Its precisely-angled case, which mixes infinitesimal curves and sharp lines to perfection, is the last word in blending case with bracelet. And the hexagonal crown and chrono pushers, echoing the shape of the screws that fix the bezel to the case, add a final element of balance. It’s a design that cannot be improved upon in any way—which is why, barring the slight updates of the Royal Oak Offshore and Royal Oak Concept watches, this timeless sports watch has remained unchanged since the day it was born.
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