That, my friends, is a good thing because when you spend the coin on AP you want to see their very nicely finished movements and that really cool solid gold engraved rotor. Now, you can get a more purist Audemars Piguet watch experience with their diver’s watch. What you are looking at through the sapphire crystal case back is the in-house made Caliber 3120 automatic, and it has never ceased to be very beautiful.
The 3120 is a high-end workhorse movement with about 60 hours of power reserve. It does however operate at a frequency of 3Hz (21,600 bph) and I really feel that Audemars Piguet needs to make it a priority to increase that to a more modern 4Hz (28,800 bph). With most movements from ETA and other high-end three-handers offering 4Hz, Audemars Piguet should probably do the same. What does that mean for most people? Well, the higher the frequency, the most stable a watch’s rate results should be. Alone it doesn’t mean more accuracy, but over time it tends to mean that. Audemars Piguet probably is working on this, but I feel the need to continue to remind them in order to help make each of their timepieces as awesome as they could be.
At 42mm wide the Royal Oak Offshore Diver sits very well on the wrist offering a very high level of comfort and style. In white you can really see all the case details well, including the classic Genta-designed octagonal bezel. As a diver, this watch features an internal rotating bezel that is operated by the screw-down crown located at about 10 o’clock on the case.
The dial of the Diver is offered in Audemars Piguet’s iconic “Mega Tapisserie” style in a whitish-silver finish that offers a high-contrast look against the hands. Navy blue is used as an accent color on the dial while it offers a nice mix with the white. There are two lume colors on the dial as well. There is a mix of a more traditional whitish green lume, as well as blue lume paint. We haven’t tested it, but darker colored lume paints tend not to be as bright as the lighter ones. Though if you were curious, the dial should be lumed all around. The hour markers and hands are further produced in 18k white gold – mainly because of its ability to hold a polish and its corrosion-resistant qualities.
Attached to the white Royal Oak Offshore Diver is a white rubber strap. Audemars Piguet of course uses an extremely high-quality rubber that looks and feels great. Rubber is really not created equally, so when you get to handle its best forms it makes going back to cheap rubber… unpleasant. The white rubber is matched to a titanium buckle, and the whole thing just works together nicely.
In my opinion this could be “the white watch” to start for those guys who are mighty skeptical of that whole “dudes wearing white watches” thing. Honestly, it really depends on your style and where you live. Find yourself in a warm town or coastal city like Los Angeles or Miami? Then a white watch is going to fit in just fine. Are you stationed in New York City or London during the winter? If so then you might want to keep this in a box for the summer months. People know that I have no desire to wear feminine watches so when I say these are cool it is because they are in a very masculine kind of way. Still not into white watches? That’s cool – you still have way too many options out there to choose from. Price for the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver in white ceramic is $23,900. audemarspiguet.com
