Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street Luxury Watch Review

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The City That Never Sleeps deserves a watch with style that won’t quit. And this Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition of 250 pieces is ready to count every New York minute.

With a rubber-clad bezel, stainless steel case, and special rose gold dial accents, the Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street is ready to bring the best of the Big Apple to your wrist.

Audemars Piguet released the 42mm stainless steel Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition in 2010 to celebrate the reopening of the AP factory boutique on 57th street in Manhattan, New York. The cool tri-tone Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition alternately evokes the formality of Wall Street and Fifth Avenue with the flamboyant exuberance of Broadway and Times Square.

The stainless steel case of the Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition betrays little of the drama seated upon the dial. Audemars Piguet’s traditional hand-finished steel exhibits the expected level of detail in its brushed flanks, polished camfers, and crisp character lines.

This Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street employs a matte black rubber bezel borrowed from the celebrated “Rubber-Clad” model, but the dial within sets the New York boutique model apart from the pack. But in true “Broadway” fashion, these details merely set the stage.

Audemars Piguet’s stunning “57th Street” dial is the marquee attraction. The gorgeous composition of black and 18-karat rose gold elements achieves stunning contrast and a look entirely unique to this model. In order to express the rose gold Arabic numerals to the fullest, AP foregoes use of luminova on these characters, and each numeral’s broad gold face is brushed for added effect.

All printing, chapter rings, hands, and the applied “AP” logo are rendered in matching rose gold. The hour and minute hands of the Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition receive a rare black luminova treatment. This unusual variant of luminescent paint allows the rose gold hands to read as delicate golden outlines superimposed atop the black dial base.

Audemars Piguet compounds the effect of the rose gold accents by endowing the Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition with a specially modified version of the model line’s signature “mega tapisserie” hobnail dial. The usual wall-to-wall grid of engraved blocks is pared down to the center disc inboard of the hour track; the bold rose gold hour markers sit atop a flat brushed track that adds to their visual impact.

All elements of the dial are framed by a graceful concave tachymeter rehaut that sweeps downward from the bezel to provide aesthetic unity to the black “57.”

Collectors who love big watches cannot do any better than this. While other brands trade traditional craft content for visual impact and profit margin, Audemars Piguet continues to construct the Royal Oak Offshore using the same old world diligence as its original Gerald Genta Royal Oak.

Hand-polished movements, dials turned on 19th century-style pantograph tables, and laboriously finished case components (and the Offshore has many) are the eternal hallmark of the original oversized sports watch. While many have done their best to emulate the Offshore, these efforts amount to shadows of the original.

When it comes time to throw down and show the cards, the only extrovert sports watch with the substance to match its style wears "AP" on its dial. And Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition is the only Royal Oak Offshore built for the original Gotham City.

This Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 57th Street limited edition is available from thewatchbox.com in outstanding condition. When shopping for a Royal Oak or Offshore variant, the condition of the bezel and case are critical.

Because these watches are extraordinarily labor-intensive to finish and refinish, buying one in immaculate condition is essential; rubber-clad bezels such as this one are doubly sensitive, because damaged natural rubber cannot be repaired only replaced.

View the ultra-high resolution photography of this Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore on www.watchuant.com, and the singular condition of this example will speak for itself. Video and content by Tim Mosso.