Most summer watches are content to tell the time. Audemars Piguet’s latest Royal Oak Offshore models seem more interested in telling you where you’d rather be.
The Swiss watchmaker has introduced three new 37mm Selfwinding Chronograph references, each powered by the brand’s latest Calibre 6401 movement and dressed in colours that feel unusually joyful (and fabulously feminine) for haute horology. Think turquoise waters, pastel blue skies and strawberry-pink sunsets rather than traditional watchmaking seriousness.
The pink model, framed by a diamond-set bezel and matched with a pink rubber strap, is likely to attract the most attention. Not least because it looks as though it belongs on the deck of a yacht somewhere between Saint-Tropez and Capri. Yet beneath the playful exterior sits the same technical rigour Audemars Piguet is known for, with a newly refined movement now visible through the sapphire caseback.
Watch brands spend a lot of time talking about heritage. This feels more interested in the present. And frankly, summer could use more pink watches.
