Audemars Piguet

ThomasM
[PuristS]
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Royal Oak Offshore Montauk Highway - On the Wrist Review by Daos

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montauk Highway limited edition - Complementary Contradictions: Daos' On The Wrist review

Please leave a note of thanks to Daos for her tasteful insights into a very intriguing design of complementary contradictions

Bravo, Daos!

TM

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"I want it."

"Can I have your watch?"

"I love that watch!  Where'd you get it?"





The above are actual verbal reactions that I received to wearing the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montauk Highway (Let's call it "the Montauk" from here on out.).  I honestly was not surprised that the Montauk garnered quite a bit of attention.  Its robust 44mm case diameter, while not outside the norm of what is au courant in horological design, has presence; coupled with the white rubber strap on which it was delivered for review, and you begin to feel eyes caressing your wrist as you cross a room.





Wearing the Montauk has been an eye-opening experience in many ways.  It’s the biggest watch I’ve ever worn for a significant period of time (The 43mm Piaget Altiplano Double Jeu previously held that title.), it’s the heaviest stainless steel piece I’ve encountered to date, and perhaps most importantly this Royal Oak Offshore is the first timepiece I’ve “lived with” that impacted me more as an object of modern design, rather than simply as a wristwatch.   Let’s dissect that last thought, because I know inevitably that any ensuing discussion about the Montauk is going to touch upon the issue of limited editions –

you love ‘em;

you hate ‘em;

they’re marketing shenanigans;

AP [or insert your brand of choice (JLC, Panerai, etc.) here] has sold out!

Okay, I hear you.  I understand the cynicism, but here’s the basic conclusion I arrived at after wearing the Montauk for a few weeks.

Good design, is good design.

Iterations like the Montauk will come and go, with some variations on color, material, or slightly modified features being more/less successful than others, but the core design elements of the Offshore are compelling, in my opinion.  Like an Eames Lounge Chair, the Royal Oak Offshore isn’t going anywhere.  You may hate the design; you may love it, but I have to believe that anyone who enjoys watches, enjoys machines, enjoys design, can’t help but react to the watch on an intellectual or emotional level in some way.  To me, that’s good design at work.  It’s the only watch I’ve worn to date that inspired a huge level of active, engaged, watch-related discussion amongst my decidedly uninterested-in-watches colleagues – both men and women (I was particularly floored by the overwhelming love that my female friends had for the timepiece.).





I think it’s fair to say that the road to the Montauk starts with Gerald Genta’s now iconic design from the early 70s, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.  Released in stainless steel, and not exactly traditional in construction or spirit, AP’s decision to move forward with the Royal Oak seems brazen and forward-thinking.  Even today, the Royal Oak feels fresh and inspired to me.  How does a steel watch that channels such industrial, architectural elements as exposed screws, simultaneously come across as elegant and polished?  (Answer: give it a relatively svelte profile, a fine finish, and beautiful movement.)  Watch designs featuring exposed screws may elicit a declaration of “been there, done that” today, but the original Royal Oak debuted in 1972!  With the Royal Oak, Audemars Piguet declared that being a haute de gamme manufacture and being audacious weren’t mutually exclusive.  Well played, AP, well played.

The Royal Oak Offshore arrived on the scene roughly twenty years after the birth of the Royal Oak.  Designer, Emmanuel Gueit, took an elegantly sporty watch (our beloved Royal Oak) and turned it into a design behemoth, literally and figuratively.  At that time, before our current era of large watches, the Offshore was a singular, bold, and beefy vision of what it means to be a luxury sport watch.  The rest of the watch world played catch-up in the ensuing years, but the Offshore continues to be a larger-than-life timepiece.  Looking back, Audemars Piguet’s audacity in releasing the design almost seems foolhardy, but fortune favors the bold, as history proves time and time again.  After all, how many watch brands get name-checked by Beyoncé, and used as a verb, no less:

“Partner let me upgrade you,
Audemars Piguet you,
Switch your neck ties to purple labels…"
(lyrics excerpted from the song "Upgrade U")

It's fitting that Beyoncé should serve as the segue into our specific discussion about the Montauk, because I could absolutely see her wearing the watch.  The Montauk is an ideal timepiece for a coolly confident woman like Beyoncé.  Apart from the size and heft of the Montauk, which skews traditionally male at a hearty 44mm in diameter and 18mm thick, the color palette of the watch is most definitely female-friendly.  With strap options in white rubber, and also brown hornback with aqua stitching (to match the color of the watch's hands, numerals and flange) the Montauk is equally comfortable paired with a chic Lilly Pulitzer empire-waistline dress or a La Perla bikini.  Conversely, the fashion-forward gentleman can accentuate his traditional seersucker suit, or madras shorts and polo shirt combo with this same timepiece to great effect.   





Named in honor of the roughly 100-mile long Montauk Highway that connects Jamaica, in the Queens borough of New York City, to Montauk Point, on the south fork of Long Island in the town of East Hampton, the watch's name begins to conjure images of sand dunes and Atlantic breakers.  You've heard of "the Hamptons?"  Well, East Hampton is part of THOSE "Hamptons" -- the beautiful seaside enclave which boasts several of America's wealthiest zip codes.  The Hamptons has become synonymous with the summertime exploits of the well-heeled set, and the Montauk Highway is the road that takes you there.  It's fitting then that the watch bearing this highway's name is Audemars Piguet's take on the Royal Oak Offshore for the sand and surf set. 

DIAL

The first indicator that the Montauk is an Offshore perhaps better suited to clambakes than fighting killer cyborgs, is its color scheme.  A creamy off-white Méga Tapisserie guilloché pattern dial, recalls the salt-kissed vintage white of painted Adirondack chairs, while the bronze-chocolate counters, and aqua numbers, hands, counter pointers and tachymeter scale evoke images of sand, sea and sky. 





The Montauk is your East Coast summer seaside retreat condensed into a wristwatch!  The chronograph display features a 12-hour counter at the 6 o'clock position, a 30-minute counter at 9 o'clock, and centrally-mounted second hand.  One thing I noted about the overall time display was that the rounded ends of the hour and minute hands were not particularly conducive to precise time-telling, which seemed counter-intuitive for a chronograph.  The dial also includes a continuous small seconds display at 12 o'clock and a date window at 3 o'clock.  The sunken magnified date window takes some getting used to.  Even as I write this I'm on the fence as to whether or not I like the date display. 





Generally speaking, a date display is never high on my list of desired features for any watch -- this is a personal preference.  The sunken date window on the Montauk has this odd quality to it, as the actual date display feels far from your eye compared to the rest of the dial.  Based on where the display is positioned on the movement, which is a function of the base AP caliber 3126 being modified to include the in-house chronograph module caliber 3840, a magnification window is necessary to aid the wearer's viewing of the date.  For me, it took some time to adjust to this feature.  One thing I do like about the sunken date is that while it needs a magnification window to be legible, there's no cyclops to interrupt the beautiful plane of the sapphire crystal which is set flush into the bezel.

CASE & STRAP

The dial colors may evoke a breezy ocean retreat, but the heavy, architectural steel case reminds you that you've got an Offshore strapped to your wrist.  The octagonal bezel and complementary set of eight exposed screws (actually hexagonal nuts) is the signature line-look for the Royal Oak Offshore collection. 





On the Montauk, this strong design aspect (inspired by maritime architecture), when viewed as a whole against the chosen color palette, results in a pleasing yin yang effect.  There's both a masculinity and femininity present in this particular Offshore. 





The case feels substantial and its weighty presence on the wrist is reassuring.  The brushed steel bezel is a textural and visual counterpoint to the high-polished "visse hexagonal," literally translated as "hexagonal screws."  In the English language, "visse hexagonal" might also be referred to as "bolt-nuts."





When I first started wearing the Montauk I was unsure about the visible black rubber gasket sandwiched between the raised bezel and base of the case, but after a few days I started to love the look of the gasket paired with the rubber-clad crown and chronograph pushers.  The unified rubber-look is tough; gritty (but not too gritty).  The sides of both the elevated bezel and case combine brushed and polished surfaces. 





I particularly enjoy how the sweeping upper surfaces of the lugs are polished to a high sheen.





It's a killer look when paired with the large brushed areas on both sides of the case.  The case back is brushed steel and is engraved with the model name, noting that the watch is a limited edition (of 300 in this case).  The engraving is very clean and the high-polished steel screws, called ecrou by Audemars Piguet (commonly translated to the English word "bolt"), again provide a nice contrast to the brushed caseback.





What I find interesting about the rear view of the Montauk is that the underside of the case is actually bead blasted, so there are three contrasting textures at play -- bead blasting on the underside of the case, a brushed finish on the caseback itself, and a polished finish on the exposed screw heads. 





Altogether, the effect is very industrial, and it highlights the metal surfaces of the watch.

The Montauk I reviewed was delivered on a smooth, white rubber strap with two floating strap keepers.  The proportions of the strap are extremely comfortable, and I didn't find that it pinched at all when worn.  I don't have a hairy wrist, so perhaps I am not the best test subject to report back on the strap pinch factor, however.  The strap attachments feature a brushed finish to coordinate with the brushed steel that covers a large portion of the case. 





Where the attachments and strap meet, AP has carved out two shallow channels in the rubber that add visual interest and present an air of sleekness. 




The signed deployant, in contrast, has a polished finish.  I like the deployant, and especially enjoyed unfolding it to find a stylized AP logo. 





A few other PuristS who tried on the Montauk at a recent get-together felt the deployant could be a bit heftier.  I thought it was fine, myself.  The one concern I would have with the strap on a long term basis is that it can be stained fairly easily.  I wear a lot of dark-wash denim so the color of my jeans rubbed off on the strap when resting my arm while seated.





The watch is also available on a brown hornback crocodile strap with aqua stitching.  I didn't have the pleasure of experiencing that option personally, but it looks great in pictures.  All things considered, I think the rubber strap on this AP Offshore is fantastic, and one of the most comfortable rubber straps I've worn (the Piaget Polo FortyFive rubber strap remains my favorite).

Movement & Pushers

The Montauk has a solid caseback to aid in achieving its stated water resistance of 100 meters.  Within the case resides Audemars Piguet's caliber 3126/2840 (based on the venerable caliber 3120).  The movement's modular construction may have some chronograph lovers crying foul, and wishing for an Offshore with a truly integrated movement, but here's how much I personally care about whether or not a chronograph's movement is modular or integrated:

0%.

As long as the movement is robust, works as it should, and is well-finished in proportion to its value (The price-to-finishing ratio will differ from person to person, naturally.), then honestly it doesn't matter to me if the movement is modular or integrated.  Call me a heathen, and send the villagers to burn me out, if you must. 





The pushers on the Montauk are rubber-clad, as is the signed crown, whose hexagonal shape echoes the six-sided screws on the bezel.  Upon close inspection of the pushers and crown I noticed that they did not align exactly upon the same central axis along the side of the case.  This slight offset is due to the modular construction of the movement.  Visually, it doesn't bother me, and I find the look of the crown and pushers to be pleasingly unified. 





When I first engaged the chronograph function on the Montauk, I felt the action of the pushers was quite stiff; the feedback after depressing and releasing them less than optimal for my taste.  Over the course of the review period (roughly three weeks), I believe the action of the pushers became smoother.  Did the Montauk's pushers benefit from a "breaking-in" period, or did I simply become used to the feel and feedback from the watch?  Perhaps, a combination of both.  Overall, the action of the chronograph was pleasant, if not overwhelmingly silky with a bit of bounce upon release (the type of pusher-action I prefer when engaging a chronograph).  These preferences are individual to me, of course, and I have no doubt that many people would find the action of the Montauk's chronograph pushers to be perfect for them.  

In summary, I think I appreciate the Montauk most as an object of design, then as a watch, and lastly as a chronograph.  During my time with the Montauk it felt as though the watch slowly won me over.  Initially, I thought it was "nice," and a pleasant enough luxury sport watch, but as I write this post I realize that I actually enjoyed my experience with the Montauk considerably.  Also, while the Montauk itself may not represent the best that Audemars Piguet has to offer, it reminds us in several ways of what is good, and great about AP:

- Innovation and commitment to design -- the Royal Oak/Royal Oak Offshore are both horological designs that were arguably ahead of their time when initially released and are now iconic.

- A bold approach to materials -- the prominent, visible use of rubber on a luxury sport watch, pioneered by AP, is testament to the manufacture's audacity at turning conventions of luxury on its head.  Titanium, rubber, PVD, tantalum, ceramic, carbon fiber, forged carbon; all these materials/techniques, are now in the lexicon of those who make luxury sport watches industry-wide, but I think it is fair to say that AP via their Royal Oak Offshore line have been industry leaders in the elevation and promotion of these materials as being equally, if not exceedingly, luxurious in comparison to traditional noble metals.

- Excellence in the traditional arts of watchmaking -- as forward-thinking as AP may be, they have not lost faith in the best practices of fine decoration and finishing.  Even on a watch at the lower-end of their range, like the Montauk, every surface, be it screw-heads, the inner surface of the date magnification chamber, the upper surface of the strap attachments, and so on, is brushed/polished/engraved, etc. to a very high degree.





The Montauk may not be a significant model for Audemars Piguet, although it deserves to be considered on its own merits, but it was an excellent touchstone for me in further understanding why I find AP and the Royal Oak/Offshore family of watches so compelling.  There's something to be said for a timepiece that helps you better understand yourself as a lover of watches.  The Montauk most certainly falls into that category for me.