Audemars Piguet
Future Collectibles: The Audemars Piguet End of Days and Bumblebee Royal Oak Offshores
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The film from which the watch takes its name is a supernatural thriller. In it Schwarzenegger plays Jericho Caine, ex-NYC police detective dedicated to defeating that ultimate screen villain, Beelzebub himself, or in Arnold-speak, “Say-Tan.” Don’t bother watching it. It is crap. If you’ve a hankering for this genre turn to Rosemary’s Baby or the still genuinely terrifying Exorcist instead. But the watch created for the character is cooler than Johnny Hartman jamming with John Coltrane wearing ice underpants.
The First True BadAss Luxury Watch
Launched in 1993, Audemars Piguet’s original Royal Oak Offshore was a revolution and an assault on conservative values that had patrician boardroom chairmen and ladies running away from it as if it were accompanied by a Mongol army intent on plundering their loot and absconding with their daughters. Yes, it was a luxury watch. Yes, it was extremely refined in finish. But it was also irrefutably badass. If the Offshore were a person, he would have parked his Harley FXR in your rose bush and put his motorcycle boots up on your Bedermier table. And that was the point. In the same way that its predecessor the Royal Oak was a watch that targeted specially at the ‘70s era playboy and his love for all things sports chic, the Offshore was a declaration that you could be rich (enough to afford its price tag) successful (enough to be rich enough to afford its price tag) and also something of a bad mother f***ker.
In 1993 when launched, this watch scared children and old people.
End of Days Royal Oak Offshore 1999 500 Pieces Limited Edition
The 1999 End of Days took the “Velcro” strapped Offshore as its base but then upped the bad assitude to Spinal Tap Level 11. First of all, the steel watch was entirely coated black, using Physical Vapour Deposition. Now this may not seem radical today, but in this era, only tool type watches, Tag Heuers, Porsche Designs, and Panerai had gone to the dark side. For a rarified brand like AP to do it was, to quote the bald dude in The Princess Bride, “inconceivable.” The blacked-out case was backed up by a blacked-out dial featuring the brand’s signature tappiserie motif, white gold subdial surrounds and shocking high alert signal yellow hands and indexes. The Special Forces meets high luxury allure was cemented with the use of a black Kevlar, aramid, Velcro strap.
The Royal Oak Offshore Bumblebee 2009
So now that I’ve gotten you all amped up about the End of Days, let me introduce you to a watch that is every bit as visually dynamite but you can wear every day and not baby it. It is also, from a performance perspective, one of AP’s lightest and hardiest watches. Its name is the Bumblebee. And it combines all the badass looks of the End of Days with real world wearability. The watch’s arresting yellow and black styling codes clearly borrow significantly from its predecessor, so much so that put them next to each other and the Bumblebee looks like the modern version of the End of Days. But beyond its epic style the Bumblebee represents three massive technical innovations pioneered by Audemars Piguet.
“The Bumblebee is so light and so robust that mark cavendish has worn it in the heat of competition.”
“The in-house caliber 3126 feature a full balance bridge and a variable inertia balance wheel to provide greater stability.”