The Offshore might have had a slow start but it became a cultural icon in just over two decades – a feat very few watchmakers can claim to have achieved. Here’s how the Offshore put Audemars Piguet on the pop-culture map
Watchmaking has almost always been a collaborative exercise. Ever since watchmakers produced their first timepieces, one of the primary goals at companies across Switzerland and beyond has been to bring various artisans together to contribute to the making of their watch. From casemakers to movement makers and dial specialists to watchmakers themselves, the world of haute horlogerie has relied on the various talents of their collaborators to craft and create the beautiful watches that we all love.
While this collaborative aspect still exists in the contemporary watch world, it has undergone some changes with brands trying to do everything in-house on account of vertical integration. One specific watch that helped modernize the industry with hot collaborations with pop culture icons was the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore. Here’s how the Offshore reinvented luxury watch collabs and partnerships in the 21st century.
The Beginning
Given that it was launched in 1993, you would be forgiven for believing that the Royal Oak Offshore’s story began in the early 1990s. After all, it’s not often that a watch needs more than a handful of years to make its way out of a sketchbook and onto the wrists of collectors, but the Royal Oak Offshore isn’t a regular watch. Instead, the Offshore began its life as a name rather than a watch. Inspired by hedonistic excess and the freedom-loving cultural zeitgeist of the 1980s, the Offshore was buoyed by, and came to represent, the pursuit of that freedom. Beginning life merely as an idea shared between AP’s then co-CEO, Stephen Urquhart and German distributor Dierk Wettengel in February 1989, the Offshore was the embodiment of speed, power, comfort and freedom – all facets of its design that it still communicates.
From those humble beginnings, the Royal Oak Offshore eventually made its way to market in 1993 to a rather slow start. Selling just 61 units in 1993, 330 units in 1994 and 325 units in 1995, the Royal Oak Offshore wasn’t an immediate hit. However, Audemars Piguet is known to stick to their guns when they know they have something good, and the Royal Oak Offshore was certainly good. In fact, I’d argue that the Royal Oak Offshore was ahead of its time, and it wasn’t too long before the watch market understood its potential. The Offshore began to receive its much-earned recognition when Audemars Piguet collaborated with Alberto Tombo, the Italian alpine skiing legend.
The First Endorsement - Alberto Tomba
While the Royal Oak Offshore certainly didn’t blaze any trails in the first few years of its release, there was one market where it massively outperformed the rest, and that was Italy. Helped by the Italians’ free-spirited approach to design and style, the Royal Oak Offshore clocked 23% of its sales in Italy its first three years. The demand was so high that Italy reported a shortage of Offshores in the market. However, besides Italy’s love of the flamboyant, there was another reason the country’s collectors loved the Offshore so much, and that was the fact that AP secured an endorsement with one of the most beloved athletes of the time, alpine skier Alberto Tomba. Modernizing the idea of collaborations within the watchmaking industry, this partnership between AP and Alberto effectively ushered the use of endorsement deals and pop culture to market modern luxury timepieces.
The Big Endorsement - Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Offshore was inspired by the cultural zeitgeist of the 1980s with its action-packed fun-loving casualness. It was also a watch that proved itself to be entirely malleable and capable of absorbing the presence and personality of those who collaborated with AP on a given variant. This is something that is perhaps best showcased with the AP Royal Oak Offshore ‘End of Days,’ the second endorsement piece to come out of the Royal Oak Offshore stable, but this time with global superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger.
So the story goes that Arnold Schwarzenegger invited François-Henry Bennahmias to join him at a restaurant in Santa Monica and the two of them then came up with the idea of the Royal Oak Offshore ‘End of Days’, which defied watchmaking convention in ways that Emmanuel Gueit probably didn’t envisage when he designed the Offshore. Indeed, François and Arnold designed the Royal Oak Offshore ‘End of Days’ together by addressing simple questions. What if it was entirely blacked out, or had a Kevlar strap with Velcro? These weren’t traits you would expect to find in a luxury sports watch from a brand as highly-esteemed as Audemars Piguet and yet the ‘End of Days’ continued where the Offshore collection originally left off in 1993 and pushed past the industry’s boundaries.
Inspired by the impending end of humanity, worn in a blockbuster movie and endorsed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the ‘End of Days’ marked the point where AP and the Offshore officially transcended traditional watchmaking.
The Fallout
Following the ‘End of Days’ in 1999, the Royal Oak Offshore was officially a part of pop culture. Having penetrated the cultural conscience after a lackluster start, the 2000s promised to be a bountiful time for the Offshore. And, of course, Audemars Piguet was on hand to make the most of it. Having seen the success that celebrity endorsements could bring to the Offshore, the positive fallout from the two previous endorsements proved that there was only one way to go with the collection. And so, the 2000s quickly became a golden era for Audemars Piguet and the Offshore, whereby the Offshore’s fun and free-spirited approach to horological design made it the perfect canvas for AP to paint a picture filled with references to whoever endorsed the Offshore and what made them unique, much in the same way that the ‘End of Days’ is a tough and rugged blacked-out watch to be worn by one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time during the end of civilization.
From being endorsed by famous athletes like F1 superstars Juan Pablo Montoya, Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher to Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and basketballer Shaquille O'Neal, the Royal Oak Offshore has put its money where its mouth is with its sports-oriented design. So much so that AP has even collaborated with sports teams on special editions like the Alinghi sail model. Indeed, the Royal Oak Offshore’s freedom-embracing hedonistic design has even paved the way for special editions with names like Jay Z.
It's not easy for a watch to successfully defy horological tradition. Many have tried and failed; it’s almost inevitable. The industry is centuries old and rooted in its ways, and yet Audemars Piguet has managed to twice create a timepiece that breaks free from the boundaries set upon it by traditionalists. Today, the Offshore has wholly transcended its status as a luxury timepiece and become a watch that exists as a cultural icon. Worn by athletes, musicians, actors, and a long list of celebrities, the Royal Oak Offshore is perhaps the perfect case study on successfully intertwining a watch with what your audience cares about. The first of its kind, the Offshore forged the way for three decades of hyper-watches that offer something special, and for that, we must thank it.
