Audemars Piguet issued this Royal Oak Offshore chronograph twice with the same blue dial and the same blue rubber strap, separating the two only by what the bezel is set with. This is the diamond version. Its counterpart carries blue sapphires, and everything else about the two watches is identical: the same 37 mm rose gold case, the same blue Lady Tapisserie dial, the same rose gold-toned counters, the same rose gold applied markers, the same strap and clasp. Diamonds and sapphires behave differently enough that the two read as separate watches rather than as options. Diamonds return light rather than colour, so the bezel becomes a bright ring separating the blue dial from the rose gold case, and the watch resolves into three distinct zones where the sapphire version resolves into one.
The case is 37 mm across and 12.4 mm thick in rose gold, with the octagonal bezel set with diamonds. The height comes from the chronograph rather than from styling, and at 37 mm it gives the watch a more substantial presence than the diameter alone suggests, which is characteristic of the Offshore line. The eight hexagonal screw positions survive the setting and remain the fixed points the run of stones is arranged around, so the ring breaks and resumes eight times rather than running continuously. That is more visible on a diamond bezel than on a coloured one, because the interruptions are between bright elements rather than between dark ones. The dial is blue with the Lady Tapisserie pattern, the finest of the tapisserie grids Audemars Piguet uses and the one reserved for the smaller Offshore cases. Where the Grande Tapisserie at 41 mm reads as bold relief and the Petite at 39 mm as fine texture, the Lady grid at 37 mm produces a dense, close-worked surface that resolves only at short distance. Three counters are cut into that field and are rose gold-toned rather than blue, so they read as warm objects set into a cool ground. Rose gold applied hour-markers and Royal Oak hands sit above. Warm markers, warm counters, a warm case and a bright bezel give the dial four registers to hold apart, which is the most any watch at this size in the family is asked to do. The strap is blue rubber, closing on a rose gold AP folding clasp.
The function set is a chronograph with hours, minutes, small seconds and a date. The chronograph is why the case runs to 12.4 mm, and on a 37 mm dial the three counters occupy proportionally more of the available field than they would at 41 mm, which is why making them warm rather than matching matters. Warm counters against a blue ground separate immediately, so the chronograph stays readable on a dial with little room to spare. The date is worked into the counter layout rather than added at the edge, which is the only way to fit it on a dial this size without taking space from a register. The diamond bezel adds a ring of moving highlights immediately outside that field, and a dark blue dial is the right partner for it, since the two keep to separate registers rather than competing as they would on a pale ground.
The Royal Oak Offshore is the more assertive of the two lines Audemars Piguet builds on the octagonal case, taller and more heavily constructed than the Royal Oak proper and generally fitted to rubber rather than to an integrated bracelet, and at 37 mm it is aimed at a wearer who wants the Offshore proportions without the 42 mm and 44 mm cases the line is better known for. Within this reference the range runs across rose gold and yellow gold, with silver-toned, blue, black and smoked rose gold-toned dials, on rubber straps in white, blue, black and beige, several with gem-set bezels and two supplied with an additional rubber strap in a second colour, the interchangeable strap system on those references letting the watch be reconfigured rather than chosen once. This reference and its sapphire-set counterpart are the only pair in the family that share a dial and differ solely in the stone on the bezel.
This reference suits a collector who wants the Offshore to be seen. A diamond bezel on a gold case with a rubber strap is a combination that reads as deliberate rather than as formal, and the contrast between the setting and the strap is the point rather than an inconsistency. The blue dial keeps it anchored, since a pale dial under a diamond bezel would have merged the two into a single bright object and lost the structure. It appeals to someone who has seen the sapphire-set version and wants the bezel to add light rather than colour, and to someone who wants a watch at this size that will be identified as an Audemars Piguet immediately.
