Audemars Piguet

My AP Dawn of the New Day Offshore

I've been wearing my Dawn of the New Day Offshore recently. For those who don't know this watch, it was one of a handful of prototypes that PuristS founder Dr. Thomas Mao made which had a prototype black PVD like coating where the black coating is somehow infused into the steel substrate a few microns thick, making this coating more resistant to scratches than normal PVD/DLC.

Hope all is going well for my fellow PuristS!!

Cheers,

Anthony

login to reply

Uber cool and rare! Enjoy this beautiful bird!

By: amanico : May 15th, 2024-16:45

Super cool.

By: AuHavrePro : May 15th, 2024-17:01

I think of Thomas occasionally, I hope he is doing well.... Cheers, Filip

Very cool!

By: GWIS : May 15th, 2024-17:05

Thanks for the pictures. I hope Thomas is well. I thoroughly enjoyed the Purists trip to Le Brassus back in 2006. All the best, Jon

Good to see you AT, and this Offshore.

By: MichaelC : May 15th, 2024-17:33

I remember it and am glad you still enjoy it.

Was this a one off piece? I can’t find any info on it.

By: ArmisT : May 16th, 2024-01:28

Let's see if Anthony replies. I remember him posting it many years ago.

By: MichaelC : May 17th, 2024-14:11

Thomas had some of these watches from AP with various coatings. Not sure how many were made. I know there were some Royal Oaks too, and maybe a different metal for one of them (including the bracelet).

I forgot exactly how many were made

By: AnthonyTsai : May 18th, 2024-03:06

but I believe definitely less than 10 total, and each one ws different.

Clearly then these weren’t even advertised limited editions…

By: ArmisT : May 18th, 2024-04:31

instead, these were for select clients, which makes these pieces truly unique and special. Excellent story 🤩

My Dawn of a New Day is a one of a kind

By: AnthonyTsai : May 18th, 2024-03:05

I designed the watch dial itself including choosing the hand colors including the chronograph hands. Certain combos were denied, and I ended up with this design which was approved by AP.

Ah, I understand now, thanks for explaining.🙏🏽

By: ArmisT : May 18th, 2024-04:25

So, even the name is basically what you chose to call it i.e. it’s not from some movie. Great name 👌🏽

Which makes it even more " cool ".

By: amanico : May 18th, 2024-05:16

It looks good on you

By: Chronometer (aka yacomino) : May 15th, 2024-17:52

Blast from the Past how cool is that, good to see you posting AT :-)

By: SALMANPK : May 15th, 2024-19:15

Holy cow blast from the past!

By: pfang56 : May 15th, 2024-20:08

Great to hear from you Anthony - Hope you are doing well! Love this piece - wish they put Arabics in the new Ceramic Offshores because I would totally go bonkers on those. Please post more often - I still remember your old Panerai and Barrichello RG posts...

Didn't know this Offshore.

By: M4 : May 16th, 2024-00:03

It's very sharp and I especially like the color of the hands and the way they stand out against the black and white dial/numerals. M4

Here's the drawing I made when I was designing the watch dial

By: AnthonyTsai : May 18th, 2024-03:16

...

Excellent AP!

By: ArmisT : May 16th, 2024-00:07

I didn’t know this one. It has similarities to the End of Days ROO. The name of it makes me think that they are indeed complementary pieces. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I designed it and was inspired by the End of Days

By: AnthonyTsai : May 18th, 2024-03:07

hence why I named mine Dawn of the New Day!

Love it!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

By: ArmisT : May 18th, 2024-06:19

I remember these watches.

By: Jay (Eire) : May 16th, 2024-02:19

But I don’t remember the details on the process. Can you share? Was it done aftermarket (I think yes). Has the process been used commercially for other watches at this point? If not, why not as it seemed like it addresses a major complaint for traditional...

To my recollection, Thomas owned the PVD process

By: AnthonyTsai : May 18th, 2024-03:11

and got permission by AP to make these prototype coating pieces. There were 2 batches made. The first batch, the coating wasn't as even. Improvement was made in the 2nd batch. Serial # engravings on the case back show if these pieces were part of Batch #1...

Thanks for explaining Anthony.

By: Jay (Eire) : May 18th, 2024-12:46

What a super cool watch. To have the ability to do something like that with a brand like AP is obviously extremely rare if not impossible these days. Not that any old watch buyer could do it back then either, but certainly the doors of the brands were muc...

Looking as cool as ever, AT!

By: AlexSunrise : May 16th, 2024-13:46

Thanks for sharing and great to read you, Alex

I didnt know about this!

By: Eikþyrnir : May 18th, 2024-10:40

Fantastic to learn and to see!