Originally launched in 2012, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver in stainless steel quickly became one of the 'hottest' watches of 2012 and for sure the point of entry into Audemars Piguet for many. This week at the SIHH 2015, Audemars Piguet refreshed this model by adding a beautiful silver-tone dial —looks quite white depending on the light— to it as well as a display case back under ref. 15710ST.OO.A002CA.02.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver was originally launched as ref. 15703, but because is now fitted with a display case back —as it is the case for other iterations of the watch including the Black Ceramic model, White ceramic, Forged Carbon, QE Limited Edition— the new reference number for this watch is 15710. Also, please be aware of the fact that the ref. 15703 in stainless steel with solid case back has been discontinued and replaced by the ref. 15710ST.OO.A002CA.01 with black dial and display case back. For those of you that have asked us if the display case back can be retrofitted to the first series of Divers bearing ref. 15703, the answer is no. Audemars Piguet will not do that for you as this is a complete new reference number 15710.
Fitted with the same in-house caliber 3120 as the ref. 15400, 15300 and the 15703, the watch movement has been improved to fix some of the known issues of this calibre such as problems with the calendar wheel not changing properly or the crown wheel not engaging at times, thus not allowing the wearer to set the time. Some Audemars Piguet enthusiasts refer to this movement as "one of the greatest automatic movements ever made". In our humble opinion, it is indeed one of the greatest and also very accurate with a power reserve up to 60 hours.
The case diameter is 42mm like on all other Royal Oak Offshore Divers and the watch can withstand the pressure at 300 meters deep. Total weight of the watch approximately 170 grams. The new dial, gorgeous in our opinion adds perfect contrast to the black rubber strap and its inner rotating bezel is as glossy and easy to read as it gets. Another big change is that the calendar wheel is white instead of black as it is on all other Divers with the exception of the one in white ceramic.
This watch is also fitted with a beautiful rubber strap with a thick rubber grain very different to that on other Offshore straps and comes with a tang buckle in stainless steel. On the wrist, this new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Diver Silver-Tone White Dial just presented at the SIHH 2015 seems to wear slightly larger than its predecessor —at least optically.
Sticker Price $19,000 USD. For more info on Audemars Piguet click here.
