Description
More than three decades after the Royal Oak Offshore debuted in 1993 — nicknamed "The Beast" for its oversized proportions and visible rubber — Audemars Piguet has given its muscular chronograph a dose of summer colour. The brand unveils two trios of Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronographs, in 42 mm and 37 mm, for a total of six new references. The accents may read as seasonal, but the substance is mechanical: a new in-house movement underpins the smaller models.
The 42 mm watches keep AP's signature Mega Tapisserie dial with single-colour chronograph accents, while the 37 mm trio brings the Offshore to a more compact, broadly wearable format. Pricing runs from CHF 32,500 to CHF 54,100 depending on size, material and gem-setting.
Design
The three 42 mm references feature Mega Tapisserie dials with coordinated accent colours — each using a single colour for the chronograph hands, the tachymeter scale and the start-stop pusher at 2 o'clock. Options are steel with a black dial and pink accents, steel in a silver-toned look with orange accents, and titanium with a dark-grey dial and yellow plus turquoise details, all on interchangeable calfskin straps.
The 37 mm trio rides on rubber straps for a sportier, summery feel. The first two are titanium — one with a turquoise tapisserie dial and a clean bezel, the other with a pink dial and a diamond-set steel bezel — while the third pairs a pink-gold case and diamond-set bezel with a light-blue dial. Both sizes use brushed-and-polished cases with sapphire crystals front and back.
Specifications
- References: 26238ST / 26238TI (42 mm); 26430TI / 26430IS / 26430OR (37 mm)
- Case sizes: 42 mm x 15.3 mm; 37 mm x 11.5 mm
- Case materials: stainless steel, titanium, or 18k pink gold (37 mm gold variant); brushed and polished
- Bezel: standard or diamond-set (select 37 mm references)
- Crystal: sapphire, front and caseback
- Water resistance: 100 m (42 mm); 50 m (37 mm)
- Dial: Mega Tapisserie / tapisserie with coloured accents (black, silver, dark grey, turquoise, pink, light blue)
- Movement (42 mm): AP in-house integrated self-winding chronograph (column wheel + vertical clutch)
- Movement (37 mm): new in-house Calibre 6401, integrated self-winding chronograph, 27 mm x 5.7 mm
- Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
- Power reserve: 70 hours (42 mm); 55 hours (37 mm)
- Strap: interchangeable calfskin (42 mm) or rubber (37 mm), pin buckle
- Prices: CHF 33,600 (42 mm); CHF 32,500 (37 mm titanium) / CHF 36,300 (titanium & diamonds) / CHF 54,100 (gold & diamonds)
What's Exciting
Strip away the summer palette and the real headline is the new Calibre 6401. Unveiled earlier in 2026 and built specifically for smaller cases — 27 mm across and just 5.7 mm thick, against the 32 mm of the larger calibre — it lets AP put a fully in-house integrated chronograph into a 37 mm Offshore. There were 37 mm Offshore chronographs before, powered by the Calibre AP 2385 (derived from the Frederic Piguet 1185), but moving to a proprietary, purpose-built movement at this size is exactly the right answer to the current appetite for more compact watches.
The colour story is fun and well-judged — the single-accent treatment across hands, tachymeter and pusher keeps the busy Offshore dial coherent — but it is the engineering that makes this a genuine release rather than a seasonal refresh.
History
The Royal Oak Offshore arrived in 1993 as a brasher evolution of Gerald Genta's 1972 Royal Oak, with bigger proportions and exposed rubber that scandalised purists before becoming a cult icon. The chronograph has long been the Offshore's signature complication. Audemars Piguet's modern integrated chronograph architecture — combining a column wheel with a vertical clutch — debuted in 2019 alongside the Code 11.59 collection, and the new Calibre 6401 extends that family downward in size, ensuring the smallest Offshore chronographs are now powered entirely in-house.
