A Legacy Of Audacity

Audemars Piguet celebrates 30 years of the Royal Oak Offshore. Here's everything you need to know about its anniversary models and the collection's climb to icon status.

- Charmian Leong

IMAGINE REDESIGNING A watchmaking icon that has enjoyed two decades of unparalleled success, born from the brilliant mind of a visionary watchmaker. Now picture your creation being not only widely panned by the horological community but also labelled a “sea elephant” by the very designer you sought to honour.

It couldn’t have been much fun being Emmanuel Gueit. The Genevan designer had been tasked with tweaking Audemars Piguet’s unassailable Royal Oak for a younger, trendier audience. In 1993, Gueit delivered the Royal Oak Offshore on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its famous older sibling. The reception was divided and among his harshest critics was a bemused Gérald Genta, the man who designed the original Royal Oak. At 42mm, the thick and beefy Royal Oak Offshore Ref. 25721 was thought by naysayers to be too large (for its time) and too expensive (being double the price of the steel Royal Oak Ref. 14790).

But Steve Urquhart, then Audemars Piguet’s co-CEO, was unwavering in his belief in the Royal Oak Offshore. He felt that his German distributor, Dierk Wettengel, was on to something when the latter requested back in 1989 a new offshore yacht racing-inspired watch that would capture the spirit of the coming decade. Urquhart even registered the name ‘Offshore’ before Gueit made his first sketch.