The brushed titanium bezel really emphasizes the gray color of the metal. The same tone is matched both on the dial and gray crocodile strap. What is actually quite apparent about the watch in person, more so than you may expect in the pictures, is how much you notice the deep blue color of the chronograph seconds hands. While titanium bezels are nice, I personally prefer ceramic or cerachrom (which AP has used in the past and is a metal ceramic hybrid) as a metal for bezels because of their scratch resistance properties. Though they are typically darker in color than titanium.
Ceramic is used in the watch a bit. You’ll find that the crown as well as chronograph pushers are in a deep gray ceramic. Then you get the most “unique” element of the watch that some people love, and some people hate. Before you decide you have to ask yourself how much you like to finger diamonds. Audemars Piguet has decided to set the chronograph start/stop pusher with diamonds. Diamonds and masculinity are hard to combine. Though in the last several years with (some) men wearing diamond stud earrings and the like, you see more unisex ways of inferring wealth using diamonds. I am waiting for the diamond pinky ring to come back for dudes. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a more “subtle” way of including diamonds in a watch, but never in a chronograph pusher before. What do you think about it?
What I personally like about the watch are the brushed Arabic numeral hour indicators. The non-limited version of the Royal Oak Offshore have baton hour markers. These brushed ones aren’t new, as I first saw them on the ultra cool (and huge) Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Arnold Schwarzenegger The Legacy Watch. Nevertheless, they are a rare element on ROO watches.
Aside from the unique gold-and-gray colors and special little features, the ROO LeBron James is very much a higher-end version of the Royal Oak Offshore people know and love. The 44mm wide case sits large on the wrist but isn’t unwieldy. While the colors aren’t for everyone, I am actually keen on the gray and gold combination, even though I could take or leave the diamonds.
Turn a Royal Oak Offshore over on its back and you always get a nice movement presentation. Even though the Calibre 3126/3840 isn’t a fully in-house movement, Audemars Piguet makes it look great and that black-colored 22k gold rotor continues to look like a million bucks. Over the case back exhibition crystal is a LeBron James signature printed in blue. The automatic movement has a power reserve of 55 hours and operates at 21,600 vph. What I’d like to see in the next few years is a fully integrated chronograph movement with a frequency of 28,000 made in-house at Audemars Piguet installed into the Royal Oak Offshore range. That would be really great. So what do you think? Is this a solid watch for LeBron James? Limited to 600 pieces total, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph LeBron James Limited Edition ref. 26210OI.OO.A109CR.01 is priced at $51,500. audemarspiguget.com
