Watches & jewellery - Audemars Piguet - The Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Michael Schumacher - 23-10-2012

Audemars Piguet - The Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Michael Schumacher

by Henry

On looking at it the first thing that comes to mind is its tough and rugged lines, with the classic octagonal Royal Oak geometry given a new look by means of the sci-fi look titanium pushers, the sleek rubber strap, and some new details on the dial, principally the eight sunken hex-head screws on the bezel. The hour and minute hands have a new design, while the dial centre has the usual intricate Tapisserie texture but on a very large scale. The peripheral ring with the hour markers features an intricate design created by fine white lines that form a chequered flag motif.

In actual fact, the case isn't all that large, 44 millimetres in width, but it appears chunkier from the fact that the bezel is set on a wider base. There are some red details on the dial, in the form of red hands for two of the subdials, the chronometer seconds and the date in a window at 3 o'clock. At the top of the tachymeter scale there are seven stars, two blue and five red, symbolizing Schumacher's World Championship victories for Benetton and Ferrari. The bezel is made in Cermet, a ceramic-metal hybrid material with metallic finish and high scratch resistance.

The caseback has the usual sapphire window revealing the Calibre 3126/3840 movement, providing hours, minutes, small seconds, date and chronograph, with 55 hours power reserve.

The watch is available in three versions. The platinum model (shown below) has a blue dial and strap, and is in an edition of just 100 pieces (price about €84,300). The pink gold version, 500 units, costs about €57,500, while the titanium model, 1,000 units, retails at about €32,500.

Below, the version in pink gold:

Below, the shoe-maker becomes a watch-maker:

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