ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE ALINGHI TEAM.
By Wei Koh (Copyright by Wei Koh and www.Horomundi.com)
In redefining the face of luxury, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Alinghi Team blows our minds as the world's first true carbon fiber cased wristwatch.
?Audacity? has always been one of the core values of Audemars Piguet, the Le Brassus based manufacture that has come to possess almost total dominion over the arena of watchmaking characterized by a merger between traditional haute de gamme values and path blazing aesthetic alchemy. It was, after all, Audemars Piguet that created our generation?s most sought after and iconic sports watch, the Royal Oak Offshore. New for 2007 is the Alinghi Team that demonstrates how this timepiece has become AP's showcase for new technology by boasting the world's first-ever true carbon fiber cased watch. The ?Offshore?, as it is known to its ranks of collectors, had an uncertain past before emerging to rule the sports watch world.
THE STORY OF THE ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE
Emmanuel Gueit the father of the Offshore
There a poetic philosophical alignment between the world's most coveted sports watch Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak Offshore and the world's greatest hip-hop impresario and Offshore loyalist, Jay-Z. For both, success was something of a long shot. Jay-Z, aka Shawn Carter, was born into the combative fury of Brooklyn's Marcy Projects ? a place where his options appeared bleak. The Royal Offshore was born out of the imagination of designer, Emmanuel Gueit, but was at once rejected as crazy and seemed destined to sit on the shelf of abandoned dreams. So freaked out by Gueit's creation was AP's then head honcho, Steven Urquhart that he would literally try to duck the young designer every time he saw him coming. But both Jay-Z and the Offshore possessed a fierce, undeniable ability to make people sit up and take notice. Their destinies were both manifest and intertwined.
The original 1993 Offshore
Music was a compulsive passion for Jay-Z and, in 1993, he made a guest appearance on the rap group Original Flavor's ?Can I Get Open?? thus unleashing the tsunami of lyrical kinetics that would eventually transform him into a contemporary culture icon. That same year, the first Royal Oak Offshore was unveiled at the Basel Watch Fair, literally causing jaws to drop. Never before had a high-end watch brand channeled industrial aesthetics, volumetric insistence and youthful energy into the relentless vision of a single timepiece with such complete commitment and dangerous bravado. At the time, the Offshore represented a complete departure from the genteel ultra-slim fayness that has insinuated into mechanical watches. This was considered to be almost suicidal folly for AP.
Cut to 14 years later and the Royal Oak Offshore is the most recognized and sought-after modern sports watch on the market. Literally exploding through the shirt cuffs (scores of Offshore owners have commanded their tailors to expand their cuffs to accommodate their watch's 15 mm plus stack height) of every celebrity from Colin Farrell to Pharrell Williams, the Offshore is a two-syllable litany of new world luxury. And while it has, from time to time, been disparaged as the ?Daytona of our generation,? by certain emasculated, effete hybrid-driving critics who tread dangerously close to getting bitch-slapped by a three-pound gold and carbon fiber assault craft for the wrist, this has only propelled its popularity farther into the outer reaches of the commercial stratosphere.
Clock the wrist on every wheel-heeled playboy from F-1 guru, Flavio Briatore to NASCAR's latest svengali of speed, Juan Pablo Montoya and you'll notice them adorned with the massive hunk of steel, gold and rubber that make up the Offshore?s ursine heft. With an inner soft-iron anti-magnetic case such as the Offshore's gravitas, after his motorcycle was run over by a doubtlessly senile lady driver in Los Angeles, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could have easily dealt her a Shaolin death blow to her unusually thick skull with its eight-sided bezel. Preferring not to damage his watch on such a thoroughly worthless specimen of human life, he wisely chose the Mohandas K. Gandhi path of non-violence. Peace out, Arnold!
GENESIS ? THE ROOTS OF THE OFFSHORE
?I remember looking at him (after he showed us the prototype of the Offshore) and saying, ?Look I'm sorry but you're crazy.? Now we have a laugh about it.? - Audemars Piguet CEO, Georges-Henri Meylan
It is impossible to discuss the modern day icon that is the Royal Oak Offshore without first detailing the genesis of the original 1972 Royal Oak. This watch was famously created by the designer, Gerald Genta. Legend goes that he was inspired by the octagonal port holes of the HMS Royal Oak, the British Navy's first armored vessel and decided to base the bezel of a new sports watch on this design. The Royal Oak's eight-sided bezel also featured exposed screws. The construction of the case was such that both the screws and the bezel were integral elements to the case structure. Indeed the entire watch was sealed using flat nuts that were attached to the screws that ran through the case ? much like load-bearing pillars in a house ? via the case back. The Royal Oak was also innovative in that it was the first steel watch created by the famously haute de gamme manufacture. Its sleek architectural profile, which merged industrial elements like exposed bezel screws with a refined movement and high finish, made it the most desired timepiece of its generation.
RISE OF THE LEGEND: THE ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE
Titanium Offshore
The idea of a massive, oversized watch based on the Royal Oak sparked in the mind of maverick designer Emmanuel Gueit sometime in the mid ?80s. What he created was a first in luxury watches ? the world's first truly oversized luxury timepiece (remember at this time, Panerai had not yet been widely introduced). It also featured exposed rubber gaskets and rubber-covered chronograph pushers. Gueit labored for endless hours, making numerous prototypes until he had the opportunity to present his baby to the Audemars Piguet Board. The Board's response was to recoil in collective horror in the manner of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby who just realized that she?d given birth to the spawn of Beelzebub. Says current CEO, Georges-Henri Meylan recalls, ?I remember looking at him and saying, ?Look I'm sorry, but you're crazy.? Now we have a laugh about it.? But at the time, Gueit didn't handle the rejection well. With fanatical zeal, he tracked down board members in the hallways, board rooms, local restaurants and even as they climbed into their cars. Finally, they agreed to make a few watches to get Gueit off their backs. So, the Offshore was born in 1993. While the watch started off with a decent response, it really started to gain momentum in the late ?90s, when the fashion for oversized watches became the most dominant aesthetic trend of the late 20th century.
AP's Offshore is the ultimate new world power symbol
For the movement of the Royal Oak Offshore, Audemars Piguet selected two products from brands they had long associations with ? Jaeger-LeCoultre (at the time, Audemars Piguet still owned a large part of the Le Sentier manufacture) and the famous Valle de Joux module maker, Dubois Depraz. A nicely reworked Jaeger-LeCoultre automatic caliber and a Dubois Depraz module created a chronograph movement for the Offshore. (As of 2007 movements are now beginning to transition to in-house modular movements with the manufacture's excellent 3120 automatic movement as the base caliber.)
A magnifying loupe was used to enlarge the recessed date that results from the movement's modular construction. But one problem existed, which was the disparity between a very large case and a small movement. The manufacture resolved this with one of the best marketing tactics since the advent of their ?steel on the outside, gold on the inside? campaign for the original Royal Oak. Every Offshore would feature an anti-magnetic inner case. Says Gueit, ?The case was so big and the movement quite slim, so we had to find a solution, which is why we decided to cover the movement with an anti-magnetic inner case.?
EVOLUTION OF THE LEGEND ? THE ERA OF MATERIAL AND DESIGN INNOVATION
END OF DAYS OFFSHORE
From the onset, the Royal Oak Offshore became the canvas expressing Audemars Piguet's fixation with aesthetic and material innovation. The 1993 Royal Oak Offshore boasted a steel case with a blue dial that was decorated with Paris hobnail and was one of the heaviest watches of the modern era. In response to this immense heft, Audemars Piguet created the titanium Offshore; a watch with all the muscularity of the steel Offshore, but with significantly less weight and that underscored the manufacture?s pioneering use of titanium as a luxury material.
Limited Edition Orchard Road tantalum case Offshore
On the design front, one special edition Offshore emerged to perfectly capture the new generation's need to redefine luxury on their own terms. The1999 End of Days Offshore was the first high luxury timepiece to use an industrial coating ? a textile strap to render in design terms ? and became one of the most influential sports watches of the last 20 years. This military-themed Offshore was created for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days. Says Emmanuel Gueit, ?It was Governor Schwarzenegger's idea. He wanted the watch all in black with yellow numbers. After some research, we decided to PVD the entire case. And the result is quite cool.? More than just cool, the End of Days Offshore, with its stealthy appeal, has led the way for the numerous black-themed PVD-treated watches that populate the market today.
The Rubber Clad Offshore
Rubber Clad Offshore with tantalum bezel Offshore made for Sincere Watch
But the first major evolution of the Royal Oak Offshore occurred with the introduction of the ?rubber-clad? model. If the original Offshore was the fastball pitch down the middle, the rubber-clad Offshore was the swing that knocked it out of the park for a scoreboard-crushing home run. The fusion of the base material, rubber with steel and, in particular, rose gold, spoke to a new generation of watch buyers seeking to define luxury on their own terms. The fact that the watch could worn in the boardroom or the Caribbean Sea spoke of the new era of adaptable luxury. The rubber-clad bezel also added resistance to the area where the chunky Offshore often picked up scratches. Ever a brand to take luxury to the extreme, although completely covered by rubber, all gold Offshore feature matching solid gold bezels, bringing to mind the phrase, ?Rubber on the outside, gold on the inside.?
Terminator 3 Offshore
In the new millennium, the Offshore underwent numerous incarnations. Worn by the 'Governator' in the film Terminator 3 was a titanic 57-mm diameter Offshore featuring brass knuckles like pusher locks. But it was 2005?s Juan Pablo Montoya Offshore that boasts one of the most engaging reinterpretation of the 1993 classic to date. The watch designed by Audemars Piguet's new master of aesthetics, Octavio Garcia, features pushers that look like air intakes and a crown that looks like a F-1 car axle. Garcia and his peer, Philippe Vaptzarof, followed up this achievement with the Rubens Barrichello II Offshore, which goes down as the most visually stunning Offshore of all time. This timepiece features a redesigned case with ceramic bezel and chronograph pushers.
Juan Pablo Montoya Offshore
Rubens Barrichello 2 Offshore
But if you were wondering what is the most audacious Offshore yet, check out the 2007 Team Alinghi Offshore that features the world's first true carbon fiber case and represents the ultimate evolution of the concept of industrial stealthy luxury first expressed by the End of Days Offshore. And how about Jay-Z, the man who incanted the words, ?Damn you fadin' hov, how you gave 'em that? Audemars-Piguet, with the alligator strap? in his song Show You How? In 2006, he inspired his own limited edition Royal Oak Offshore through a collaboration with AP's North American President, Francois-Henry Bennahmias. How's that for? From Marcy to Madison Square??
THE WORLD'S FIRST CARBON CASED WATCH ? THE ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE ALINGHI TEAM
AP's new Alinghi Team features a case crafted from forged carbon fiber made in the manufacture's in-house facility.
Harvard? Your children do not need to go to Harvard. There are many other less expensive alternatives that offer a fine education. Because success is not defined by where you get your education, but by what you do with it. Keep repeating this mantra as you cash in little Tommy's college fund and reserve your Alinghi Team Offshore ? a watch destined for fame immemorial based on its status as the world's first true carbon fiber cased watch. The Alinghi Team is the third Royal Oak Offshore created to commemorate the America's Cup winning team of the same name. While the first watch featured a simple dual time display, both the 2006 Polaris and the 2007 Alinghi Team bristle with chronograph functions specially calibrated for the America's Cup, including a ten-minute countdown display as well as a minute counter calibrated to 20 minutes and a hour counter calibrated to six hours. The chronograph also features a flyback function where stop, reset and start functions occur instantly with a push of the ceramic reset pusher at four o'clock.
AUDEMARS PIGUET AND CARBON FIBER
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's focus on the interesting stuff because these functions pale in comparison to the great technical leap forward represented by the Alinghi Team's case. Audemars Piguet is the very first manufacture to use carbon fiber in high end watchmaking. Importantly, it is also the only manufacture that has focused on functional use of the material beyond its decorative appeal.
Says the head of Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi, Giulio Papi, ?We first attempted to use carbon fiber as a base plate material for Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak Concept, but we had trouble sourcing the right type of carbon. At the time, what was available was the woven type of carbon fiber you find in racing car bodies, but this was not dense enough to use as a base plate. So, we used a titanium base plate. Later, when we found a more dense form of compressed carbon, we used this for the base plate of Richard Mille's Version 2 watches.?
Carbon fiber base plate for Richard Mille watch made at Audemars Piguet Renaud and Papi
2006 marked the realignment of functional carbon fiber and Audemars Piguet when the material surfaced as the base plate material for the stunning Maserati MC12 Tourbillon Chronograph. Says CEO Georges-Henri Meylan, ?We pioneered the functional use of carbon fiber in high watchmaking and so we have vast legitimacy in its use.? Of note is the fact that the raw compressed carbon blocks used to render these base plates are extremely expensive. According to Papi, each block costs the manufacture in excess of US$1,000 even before extensive machining takes place.
A carbon base plate is featured in Audemars Piguet's MC12 tourbillon chronograph
FORGED CARBON FIBER
So the idea of using carbon fiber as the case material of a high luxury watch is innately logical, considering the high value of the base material combined with its stellar performance characteristics. But while in theory a carbon fiber case watch is appealing, the reality of achieving this is significantly more complicated.
The genesis of the forged carbon case of the Alinghi Team comes from a trip made by Audemars Piguet's CEO Georges-Henri Meylan to a trade fair for the aerospace industry. There, he caught wind of something extraordinary. He explains, ?There were companies specializing in creating carbon fiber parts utilizing a forged carbon technology. We thought that this could have applications to make unique, high performance watch cases.?
But rather than outsource his forged carbon cases, Meylan made the daring move of building an in-house forged carbon case-making facility at Audemars Piguet. There, he set up a team including Julien Stervinou, a young carbon fiber specialist who was previously building helicopter parts using this technology, and Yves Leuba, an experienced project head from AP. At a facility locked away in AP Technology, a division of AP that previously specialized in creating precision medical equipment, cases were made.
The forged carbon procedure goes like this: carbon is first cut into precise quantities. The type of carbon fiber is specifically sourced to incorporate the correct blend of carbon and resin. It is then placed into a mold, heated and compressed. The result are cases that emerge almost fully formed. Says Stervinou? The only additional processes we need to do are some milling for the screws, the strap and in a few other places.? At the moment, the team can produce up to 25 bezels and slightly fewer cases per day. The carbon cased Alinghi Team will be made in a run of 1,350 watches. But the larger message here is that with AP's investment in this technology, the Alinghi Team is just the beginning for the manufacture's range of carbon cased watches.
When asked about the surface hardness of the carbon watch, Stervinou explained, ?It is not quite yet the surface hardness of steel, but we are working on increasing this.? The carbon is hypnotically imperfect wave pattern swirls dramatically throughout the case and brings to mind black industrial marble. Putting the Alinghi Team on your wrist is something of a surreal experience. The carbon case is cool to the touch. Its weight is almost non-existent; close your eyes and you'll almost forget you're wearing a timepiece. The carbon case boasts phenomenal strength-to-weight ratio and for all practical purposes, is all but indestructible, although the surface cannot be refinished in the event of scratches. That said, any scratches on the case would largely be camouflaged by its swirling pattern and, dare I say, even add a certain distressed cool to its form.
Octavio Garcia
Philippe Vaptzarof
The Alinghi Team will also be made in gold and platinum cased versions.
The brilliant redesign of the iconic Royal Oak Offshore in evidence here is enacted by in-house designers Octavio Garcia and Philippe Vaptzarof. Says Garcia, ?We wanted to do something really strong, almost brutal with this watch, but without losing the roots of the original model.? Adding to the stealth fighter mystique of the Alinghi Team are black scratchproof ceramic pushers and crown, blackened (PVD treated) sunken bezel screws with all-new profile torsion elements, a lug-less rubber strap that offers incredible ergonomic comfort and a massive, oversized buckle that could double as a skull splitting weapon in bare knuckle brawls. (And what about little Tommy's desire to attend Harvard? If he really wants to go so badly, he should work on his curveball to get that scholarship.)
The ingenious elevation of carbon fiber as a high luxury case material even while exploiting its high performance dynamics demonstrates that, in the realm of fusing traditional high-end Swiss watchmaking with contemporary brilliance, Audemars Piguet is unparalleled and the Alinghi Team is the biggest, 'baddest' boy on the block.
IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIEN STERVINOU ON AUDEMARS PIGUET'S IN-HOUSE FORGED CARBON CASE MAKING FACILITY
The top secret carbon forge at AP, Julien Stervinou is far right
How did AP get interested in forged carbon?
Audemars Piguet's head of production, Bruno Moutarlier, had visited several air shows where he saw on display aerospace parts made from the forged carbon fiber process and decided that this could be very interesting for them. In particular for the Alinghi as it has a nice alignment with the racing boats, which often use carbon fiber parts. So Bruno set up a team for this project.
Who leads the in-house forged carbon team?
Yves Leuba, who is also the head of production for AP technology, heads the team, and I am a specialist in this forged carbon material. We set up the fabrication facility in the basement of AP technology and now we have two additional collaborators to oversee this production process.
What makes forged carbon an interesting process for making watch cases?
It is really a good process for pieces in small dimensions. At the same time, we can also create pieces with very complex shapes, which made it ideal for creating watch cases. It is really not for very large pieces that you would find, for example, in the structure of a plane. It is a process created to replace pieces made from forged aluminum or titanium. The primary goal is to create pieces that serve the same purpose and which exhibit the same strength, but with much less mass.
Is this carbon fiber different from the type you see in F-1 cars?
Yes, this type of carbon is totally different from the type of woven carbon fiber you see in F-1 cars or in bicycles. It is different in the base material that is used and also in the procedure used to render the pieces? small complex shapes, which would otherwise be very difficult with traditional carbon fiber.
How strong is forged carbon compared, for example, to titanium?
With forged carbon, you get the same mechanical characteristics (e.g. strength, etc.), but with much less weight.
What is the surface hardness of forged carbon?
As far as surface hardness is concerned, we have not surpassed that of metal. We have a surface hardness that is not extremely high at the moment. I would say that it is just below that of steel or titanium. At the moment, we have not perfected the process for retouching it. However, I would say that this kind of material looks entirely fine even if it has received a few signs of wear ? kind of like a natural patina. In the meantime, we are working on elevating surface hardness. This is only the first step. We have pioneered this process in high watchmaking, but there is still so much further we can take it.
How productive is this process?
We have advanced very rapidly in our development of this process. Today, we are capable of producing 25 bezels and slightly fewer cases in one day.
What is the base material like?
The material (which resembles cut lengths of string) that we use comes in different lengths according to what the application is. The material consists of small ropes created from carbon fibre. We have to weigh it very carefully within 1/100th of a gram. 1/100th too much or too little will make a difference. Every part has a specifically defined weight and it has to be exact.
Is all carbon basically the same?
There is actually a huge range of carbon fibers at the moment. Although they might have the same look on the exterior, they vary very significantly in terms of their mechanical properties. Also, we must be very specific in terms of the proportion between resin and carbon fiber to provide a certain aesthetic quality.
We source our raw carbon material from a French fabrication facility. They have the ability to supply the correct proportion of carbon and resin woven together.
What is the difference between the forged carbon process used to make the case for the Alinghi Team and the process used to make the base plate for the MC12 or the Richard Mille watches?
Compared to what they use at APR&P for the carbon plates, the base carbon material is similar, but the resin is completely different. The approaches are also totally different. From what I understand, the plates used for Richard Mille are compressed first and then machined using CNC. So, they are actually using their carbon fiber in the same way they would use a piece of metal. In comparison, we create our cases using a forging process, which means pieces of carbon and resin are placed into a mold that is heated and compressed into a finished shape. So while the carbon texture may be similar, the process used to arrive at our cases is quite different.
How much additional work do the cases require after forging?
The pieces emerge from the forging process already finished. There are only a few small holes we need to create for the straps and the screws, and to create a circle for the movement within the case. Our objective is to have the least possible machining operations.
Please tell us what the future will bring for forged carbon? This is only the beginning. I think the fact that Audemars Piguet has undertaken to, once again, be a market leader by setting up this facility in-house, shows its long-term commitment to making carbon cased watches. This facility was only set up in June of 2006 by Yves Leuba and me, and it took us about six months to get things up and running. We entered into production close to Christmas.
Had you heard of Audemars Piguet before you started work here?
At that time, I didn't really know who Audemars Piguet was, having focused purely on aerospace work. But once I got here, I quickly learned about this brand.
What do you think of AP now?
I think it is, by far, the coolest brand in the world.
What makes AP special?
Tradition, excellence and innovation ? you feel it everyday when you work here.
By Wei Koh (Copyright by Wei Koh and www.Horomundi.com)
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