The renowned Royal Oak manufacturer,Audemars Piguet, has just announced the expansion of its 37mm Royal Oak Offshore collection, nearly doubling the lineup. This quintet is really a quartet and a solo act, with four gem-set chronographs and a limited-edition black ceramic three-hander, released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Offshore. If nothing else, they seem to reveal AP’s strategy when it comes to its smaller watches. That is to say, with nine of 11 37mm ROOs encrusted in jewels, AP seems to be marketing these watches to women as opposed to purely expanding its smaller watch offerings. Let’s dive into these new rather striking watches, which bring a big dose of color to the smaller Offshore.

The cases of the Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph 37mm models haven’t changed much, if at all. Offered in 18k yellow gold, 18k pink gold, or stainless steel, all four options feature gem-set bezels. The stainless steel model and one of the pink-gold models feature 32 brilliant-cut diamonds, while the yellow gold has a yellow-to-blue gradient of 32 baguette-cut green tsavorites and blue and yellow sapphires. The second rose gold model features 32 rubies, tsavorites, topaz, tanzanites, amethysts and orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and pink sapphires for a striking rainbow gradient—surely this will standout for most people. The cases measure 12.4mm-thick, but offer a pitiful 50m of water resistance despite a screw-down crown. For comparison, most of Patek’s sport chronos are rated to 120m and Vacheron’s are rated to 150m—though the Patek Aqaunaut 7968, arguably the closest thing PP has to these AP chronos, offers an even sadder 30m.

The Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Music Edition is offered in a black fully ceramic case that measures slimmer at 12.1mm but features the same exceptional brushed and polished finishing as its siblings. Of note on this case, the lug studs and crown guards are titanium and feature a knurling that gives the watch a sportier look than the other releases and that is exclusive to the Music Edition models. The water resistance from the screw-down ceramic crown is the same as the chronographs, which is to say, not much.

All the models are paired rubber straps equipped with AP’s proprietary interchangeable strap system. While the chronographs get more run-of-the-mill designs, the black rubber strap on the Music Edition has a mosaic pattern that echoes the dials pattern. The quick-change system is easily activated by depressing the two tabs where the strap meets the underside of the case, and just as novel, the folding buckle on the chronographs are interchangeable (the Music Edition features a titanium pin buckle). Of note, each of the chronographs comes with an extra rubber strap coordinated to a different color in each model, while the Music Edition gets three such watches, all with the mosaic pattern.

The AP Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph 37mm is available in blue, black, light blue, and salmon, and have undergone slight changes for this new batch of models. Most significantly, the grooved that once held the hour markers is gone, instead filled out with more truncated pyramids in what AP has eye-rollingly dubbed the “Lady Tapisserie” motif. You can add Lady to Petite, Grande, and Mega; my best guess from eyeballing it would be to place it between Grande and Mega. The chronographs’ hands and applied markers match their cases, with unspecified luminescent coating. The layout is a classic 3-6-9 chronograph, with 30-minute and 12-hour chronograph registers and a 6 o’clock small seconds; the color-matched date is at 4:30 and does a better job blending in than many other similarly positioned dates. AP says “a keen eye” will notice that the applied indices have also been updated, and if you put these models next to the old ones, they do appear slightly enlarged. More obvious is the shift from the printed “Audemars Piguet” to the applied “AP” logo at 12 o’clock.

The ROO Chronographs all have solid casebacks in the smear material as their cases, under which runs the automatic Audemars Piguet Calibre 2385. This in-house movement operates at 21,600 vph with a power reserve of 40 hours. While it does benefit from a column wheel chronograph mechanism, that power reserve is a bit wanting when compared to modern chronograph movements (Patek quotes a minimum of 45 hours for its chronographs, while the Vacheron Overseas Chronograph boasts 52 hours). The ROO Music Edition is more up to snuff, though, and is displayed through the sapphire glass in the caseback. It operates at 28,800 vph with a power reserve of 60 hours, plus you get to see all the beautiful finishing and the 18k gold rotor with black NAC coating.

The 37mm Royal Oak Offshore still suffers from a lack of choice: The 43mm models outnumber these smaller watches almost 3:1. In refreshing and expanding the 37mm lineup, Audemars Piguet isn’t necessarily observing and reacting to the downsizing market trend like we’ve seen with other brands. Further, the design approach and even the language used makes clear that AP sees smaller watches as explicitly feminine. The shame is that I imagine there’s quite the market for a no-frills [Read: no gems] ROO in a smaller size; the 42mm and 43mm models are beautiful but chunky watches and no doubt there are buyers who would snatch one up were it not for the proportions. Taken as gem-set watches with no further context, there’s nothing to suggest that these new 37mm models aren’t as beautiful in the metal as they are in renders, and the black ceramic music edition offers a bit of fresh, groovy fun.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph 37mm models vary in price. The blue dial in yellow gold (ref. 26236BA.YY.D346CA.01) and the black dial in pink gold (ref. 26236OR.YY.D002CA.01) are both priced at $110,900 USD. The light blue dial in pink gold (ref. 26231OR.ZZ.A085CA.01) is priced at $57,900 USD.  The salmon dial in stainless steel (ref. 26231ST.ZZ.A178CA.01) is priced at $40,500 USD. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Music Edition 37mm is priced at $42,200 USD and limited to 250 pieces. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.