First let me say that you all know how much I love Audemars Piguet, the Royal Oak, the Royal Oak Offshore, and music, especially EDM. I’ve spent countless hours spotting watches on the wrists of famous DJs like Afrojack, Steve Angello, Avicci, Cedric Gervais, and Tiësto, and one thing they all had in common is their choice for an Audemars Piguet watch, mostly Royal Oak Offshores. However, I doubt that any of these DJs will be sporting the new Royal Oak Music Edition watches any time soon.
While I understand the connection between AP and the world of music with the early collaborations with Jay-Z, the new Royal Oak Offshore Music Edition models are a little bit too much of a stretch trying to make the connection to the music scene and definitely not my cup of tea.
Five new Royal Oak Offshore references in 37 and 43 mm sizes and in different materials with two models in titanium, two in gem-set 18K white gold, and one in black ceramic. According to Audemars Piguet these watches are a tribute to the world of music and their tapisserie dials bear the pattern of an equalizer —VU meter— as found in recording studios. These references are powered with the automatic movement calibre 5909 for the 37 mm models and calibre 4309 for the 43 mm variants.
In addition to the dials reproducing the motifs of an equalizer, the watches feature knurled-textured plots reminiscent of jack plugs —I can’t see that myself— and crown guards inspired by the fader switches on mixing consoles. Honestly, I am not sure what the designer of these five new watches was thinking when he/she conceived them. The crown guards look relatively cool but the grooves on the caseband are a no go in my book. Then, the knurled plots make the watches appear cheap.
Something that has characterized the Royal Oak Offshore over time is its clean lines that make for a seamless transition from the case to the strap. Now with these fader switch-inspired guards, the contour of the case has been eroded by those grooves and the watch looks like a' ‘knockoff’ AP if one didn’t know that this is a real edition from the brand. How can a brand like Audemars Piguet release something so forced and out of the blue? Clearly this release really came out of left field and I am still unsure how it made it to market.
Then, as if all of the above that I mentioned wasn’t enough, these watches have no date function because Audemars Piguet decided to not include a date in order to leave plenty of space for the colored equalizer motif. The 37 mm timepieces are paired with an interchangeable blue rubber strap bearing a ‘mosaic effect’ pattern and matching the dial color, and perhaps they did this to make the 37 mm watches slightly more appealing to women. I’ll just think that that was the case.
Now, a real positive is that this is the first time that a 37 mm model features the interchangeable strap system introduced by AP in 2021 for the Royal Oak Offshore collection.
Finally, also another positive of this watch is that AP is including three additional turquoise, yellow and green rubber straps, for each watch across all five references presented.
In sum, I dislike the watch for the reasons I just explained and I feel that while this could be perceived as a fun watch to have and a cool release by AP, in my book is just totally unexpected and against the core values of the brand and their remarkable designs.
Now, if you could buy a Royal Oak in stainless steel ref. 15500 at retail —$25,300 USD—, would you spend $31,700 USD on this Royal Oak Offshore Music Edition instead?
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