Back in 2012, Audemars Piguet released the Royal Oak book commemorating the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Royal Oak. As soon as it came out, we had to have a copy of it. In the book, not only will you find very interesting historical information about the iconic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Royal Oak Offshore but also great images of vintage advertisements and even pictures of some of the 'friends of the brand', major AP collectors and even some of their brand ambassadors.

In the book, you'll find big names like Ticiane Pinheiro Justus —Brazilian TV Anchor, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Suhaim Al Thani from Qatar, Abdulmagied Ahmed Seddiqi — Chairman of renowned Middle Eastern jeweler Seddiqi & Sons, Claude Nobs —Founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Marcus Margulies —one of the biggest AP collectors and owner of MARCUS watches in London, Graeme McDowell, Juan Pablo Montoya, Leo Messi, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Schumacher and Gerald Genta amongst others. However, there's one picture in the book that caught our attention, the picture of someone named Amado Omar Yañez Osuna, CEO of Oceanografía, S.A de C.V., a Mexican company extremely involved with Pemex —Mexico's Petroleum company— and everything related to offshore oil drilling and offshore oil platforms construction. The watch on his wrist, a Royal Oak Offshore we had not seen until then and that was really  beautiful.

In 2013, we were invited to a very exclusive event and one of the attendees was wearing the exact same watch that was featured in the Royal Oak book. Interestingly enough, the gentleman wearing the watch was also Mexican but not the one featured in the book. It is amazing how small the watch collecting world really is. As we started talking about the amazing 'never seen before' Offshore on his wrist, this watchlifestyler shared with us the story behind the watch and allowed us to take these pictures for our website.

According to this watchlifestyler, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore on his wrist was a very special edition that was custom made by Audemars Piguet and commissioned by Oceanografía, S.A. de C.V. to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the company. The Royal Oak Offshore 'Oceanografía' Limited Edition bears a beautiful 'mega tapisserie' blue dial with silver registers and yellow Arabic numerals, a yellow chrono-seconds hand, blue therban crown and pushers and a beautiful engraving on the case back with the number '40', the seahorse logo of Oceanografía, S.A. de C.V. and the years 1966-2006. To round out the beautiful color combo and design, the watch is fitted with a blue alligator large square scale strap with yellow contrast stitching and equipped with the usual AP deployant buckle. We were told the watch also came with a second blue strap in smooth calf leather and a stainless steel bracelet.

Frankly, this company could've not picked a better watch to commemorate such an important milestone when you're in the business of oil ships and 'offshore drilling'. The watch, a late F-serial, does not bear any information as to how many pieces were commissioned; however, if our memory serves us correctly, we were told that there were 50 watches ever made —including a solid 18K white gold piece— in order to be gifted to friends, family and business partners. We can only imagine how much Audemars Piguet would charge to do something like this. One thing we can assume is that it wasn't a cheap limited edition and likely no bulk discount was offered. Now, for those of you wondering what small luxuries Oceanografía, S.A. de C.V. was funding with their millions —currently under investigation as published by Bloomberg here—, you may now have a good answer.

On a positive note, we are not sure what you guys think of the color combination, but we think that If Audemars Piguet were to launch an Offshore with the exact same color combination right now, we are confident it would become a huge success.

Estimated Sticker Price $40,000 USD. For more info on Audemars Piguet click here.