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Impressions of the Rubber-Clad AP Royal Oak Offshore Automatic 43mm

It’s big, it’s eye-catching, and it’s also pretty “empty”, but it does have something cool about it.

Are oversized watches a thing of the past…? In theory, yes. For two or three years now, many brands have been shrinking watch sizes. Timepieces can go down to 40mm, sometimes even smaller. However, some models are just meant to be big and bold. The Panerai of the 1990s and early 2000s, the IWC Big Pilot (the real one, not the 43mm one)… and the APROO, aka the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore. Born big and bold, very distinctive, and easily recognizable among thousands of watches. Take away the complication of the classic chronograph and you get this new reference 15605SK. Not downsized, just simplified. But can such a large watch with a simple display work? With such a stylish form, doesn’t the ROO lose some of its appeal?

The Royal Oak Offshore was born in 1993 and defined a whole new genre. Just as the classic Royal Oak broke the mold in 1972 by becoming one of the first luxury sports watches to make steel sexier than gold, the ROO opened the door to high-end oversized sports watches. Its original design, the so-called "Beast", has always been praised for its balance and appeal. Despite being a massive watch - at least at the time, as 42mm x 15mm watches don't seem so big anymore now - its design is coherent and unique. The ROO is primarily known as a chronograph, and even today a large part of the collection still relies on this feature to bring life to the dial.

That being said, the Royal Oak Offshore has long been more than just a chronograph. As early as 1989, designer Emmanuel Gueit came up with the first design concept, proposing a version without a chronograph. In 1996-97, three years after the Beast first made a splash, Audemars Piguet introduced the 30mm and 38mm time and date and calendar versions. But history has given the chronograph such an aura that we tend to forget they even existed. In the minds of watch lovers, the ROO remains a watch with a push button on the side. There is a very interesting article on the origins and evolution of the APROO in the AP Chronicles, which I encourage you to read.

It wasn’t until 2005 and 2010 that the Royal Oak Offshore without a chronograph function began to gain traction, with the launch of the Royal Oak Offshore Scuba and ROO Diver, respectively. Once again, it’s not just the time display here, and the latest revision of the Royal Oak Offshore Diver still relies on an inner rotating bezel and an additional crown at 10 o’clock. The time-only or time and date display has never really worked. So why is this new reference 15605SK any different…? As strange as it may seem, it’s all about the size. This time around, this new Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding is not a scaled-down version of the ROO Chrono. It’s just as big and bold as the rest of the collection. But does it work…?