Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Forged Carbon Watch For 2009

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jul 1st 2009 at 12:01PM

What interests me is that this watch is not a limited edition. In fact, it appears as though very few non-limited editions watches come out of the house of Audemars Piguet. This is not the first time forged carbon has been used on a watch for Audemars Piguet, who themselves were not the first watch maker to use carbon as a case material for watches. In fact various military spec watches such as Traser have been using carbon watch cases for years. They aren't exactly as fancy looking as the complex-to-make Audemars Piguet forged carbon cases, but they are equally light, and also very strong. What Audemars Piguet has brought to the table is likely their fanatical desire to "make things perfect" - having a carbon case look as though it was milled like metal. The bezel and caseback of the watch are not carbon. The bezel is a brushed and polished ceramic, while the caseback is blackened steel. You have ceramic again used as the strap connector links.

The "non initiated" who aren't watch enthusiasts won't be able to appreciate all that goes into this watch as it appears merely "nice." There are no visual clues that the case is so hard to make in this instance, and you have no idea that inside the watch a brand new Audemars Piguet in-house made caliber 3126/3840 automatic mechanical chronograph movement. The movement even has a solid gold rotor, also hidden from view. Watches like this are meant to impress the owner, and the few people they encounter who are aware of what the watch really is all about. The dial of the watch is Yellow-Jacket chic with the typical "Mega Tapestry" pattern on the dial that most Royal Oak Offshore watches receive. The tachymeter scale on the chapter ring is in yellow with black numerals while the strong looking Arabic hour numerals also enjoy the pleasant yellow hue. The crown and pushers are covered with natural rubber. Last is the sculpted alligator strap with deployment clasp and yellow contrast stitching. Certainly not love at first site for all watch lovers, but I have a feeling a few of you out there are taken by the bold looks of this watch - especially to match your yellow shoes. Price for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Forged Carbon watch is probably in the $35,000 - $50,000 range.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 2009, 26176FO.OO.D101CR.01, audemars piguet, AudemarsPiguet, forged carbon, ForgedCarbon, royal oak offshore, RoyalOakOffshore, yellow