Dive watches are the most popular category of luxury watch, and Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak is in the game. This episode explores the price, marketplace, specifications, and full factory boxed set of the Royal Oak Offshore dive watch for collectors seeking to research and buy an ultra luxury sports watch. This diving watch from Le Brassus' most famous watchmaker is equally at home as a tool watch and a fashion statement. Tim Mosso explains in this video who should consider acquiring this AP watch as well as its strengths and weaknesses.

Technical specifications are impressive. Audemars Piguet grants its Royal Oak Offshore Diver a 300-meter water resistance rating, but since this is an ISO 6425 dive watch, each example will have been tested to 375 meters before leaving the factory. Audemars Piguet chose an internal rotating dive bezel to act as the diver's timing reference. When the screw-down crown at 10 o'clock is released, the dark blue bezel can be set against the minute hand to time an event lasting up to one hour; because the bezel is protected inside the case, its entire surface is luminescent.

At 42mm in diameter, this is not a huge watch on paper, but it measures over 58mm across the wrist for a fit more comparable to a 44mm or 45mm conventional watch. That said, the matching lime green rubber strap is extremely comfortable. At 14.1mm thick, this AP Offshore is thinner than the chronograph versions. Audemars Piguet manufacture caliber 3120 is technically proficient. This automatic winding movement has a 60-hour power reserve, hacking seconds, and a quickset date. A Gyromax-style free-sprung balance and full balance bridge ensure shock resistance, and decoration is price appropriate.

This 2017 AP Royal Oak Offshore Diver in lime green was a tribute to the the wild colors of the 1997 Royal Oak Offshore lineup, but it advances the state-of-the-art for Audemars Piguet's most serious sports watch. This AP Royal Oak Offshore Diver is a vivid reminder of the kind of no-holds barred pop culture mastery wielded by Audemars Piguet but not its rivals Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, or A. Lange & Sohne. The lime green AP hobnail dial is only one element of that audacity, and it combines with familiar AP Royal Oak styling signatures like the octagonal bezel and hexagonal bezel bolts.

In fact, few high horology brands choose to match Audemars' willingness to build and market such an aggressive sports watch. Rivals to the Royal Oak Offshore Diver hail from more familiar mainstream brands like Rolex (Submariner), Omega (Seamaster), and Breitling (SuperOcean). Aside from the elite Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, there are few direct rivals to AP's dive watch in the haute horlogerie space.

Watch this video for a comprehensive review of the AP Royal Oak Diver with facts, prices, wrist shots, and context.

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