Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Watches

The Audemars Piguet Millenary Watch with Deadbeat Seconds is an exquisite timepiece inside and out. Featuring a mechanism inspired by a late 18th century creation by Robin, the brand-new system combines the high efficiency of a direct-impulse escapement with the reliability of a Swiss lever escapement. The movement requires no lubrication, something that had not yet been achieved without relying on the use of new materials like silicon. This breakthrough was first presented in the world-first Cabinet N�� 5 watch in the Tradition d' Excellence collection in 2006. Now the magic is unveiled in the beautiful new Millenary Watch.The high efficiency of the watch is thanks to the distinctive geometry of the Audemars Piguet escapement, because it does not require any lubrication it can avoid the regular maintenance that clogging from the accumulation of grease can cause. Direct impulse on the balance and the detached single-beat escapement decreases disturbances and promotes extremely high efficiency. The movement also has excellent shock-resistance which protects the watch from tripping or overbanking. The escapement platform has been turned around so the escapement is visible from the dial side of the watch, and the plate has been hollowed to reveal the mechanism. The Calibre 2905 movement features two balance-springs placed one on top of the other at a 180�� angle. The deadbeat seconds are an independent display which jumps once a second without disturbing the running of the watch. This is most often found in the famous Audemars Piguet pocket chronographs but has been miniaturized to wristwatch size. The Calibre 2905 hand-wound movement is an oval-shaped movement comprised of 233 parts.The elegant pink gold oval Millenary case has a brushed middle and a polished bezel with an entirely open dial and off center displays. All components are entirely hand-finished which includes bevelling and rhodium-plating. The sapphire crystal case-back shows the twin barrels rotating and the three-point screw and circle layout which is repeated in the centre of the barrel. The case is on a hand-sewn alligator leather strap and fitted with a pink gold folding clasp.

Last week, I was browsing through the monthly stash of watch magazines that enters my house. I don’t know about you, but unlike the advertizements in other type of magazines, I actually like looking at watch advertizements. One of the advertizements that stopped me from quickly flipping pages was this advertizement. Since , I am extra vulnerable for their ads in magazines I was immediately catched by the great combination of the cream dial, brown subregisters and blue hands, hour markers and (internal) bezel. The brown croco strap with blue stitching completes the watch. Although I wonder if I will still like the blue accents in 5 years from now, I think they are great looking now! If I could spend 20.500 USD (and probably more if you can find one of the 300 pieces) on a watch anyway, I probably couldn’t care less.Anyway, I wondered what the Montauk Highway was, since I never had heard of it. After I looked it up on wikipedia, I kept wondering what on earth is so special about this 100 miles highway. The official press release has the following to say about the Montauk Highway:“For New Yorkers, the Montauk Highway represents an escape from the rigors of the daily grind, a passage to an oasis where water laps lazily at the docks and boats dot the horizon. In this atmosphere, time extends and contracts in dreamlike proportions. Audemars Piguet set out to capture this spirit of weekend getaways and clambakes on the beach, succeeding with characteristic polish and flair.”Whatever. Just another lame excuse to create a great looking watch in only a limited production number. The watch is (or was..) only available through London Jewelers in East Hampton and South Hampton and at the in both New York and Bal Harbour.One of the things that do make me wonder, is why Audemars Piguet is using this ‘basement’-construction for their date window. It seems that their inhouse chronograph movement caliber 3216/3840 (based on base caliber 3120) is constructed in such a way, that the date wheel is somewhere down in the movement (hence ‘Basement’-construction). No wonder a cyclops is needed to show the date. Besides that, the inhouse movement is being respected a lot amongst watch collectors. The gold rotor has both family weapons engraved, which is very nice to look at. However, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montauk Highway (APROOSMH in short) has a stainless steel case back, so you’ll have to do it with this picture below:Again, too bad that they saved this version of the Royal Oak Offshore for a very limited production to honor a highway somewhere because I am really liking it and chances are little that I actually can see one up close.Looking at this watch makes me want to wear my AP RO even more, but I guess I’ll have to wait another few weeks until it returns from the Audemars Piguet dealer, since it needed a bit of regulation (and AP needs 6-8 weeks for this… ).