Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore “End of Days” – 25770SN.OO.0001.KE.01

While Audemars Piguet has never had official ties with Arnie, the Governator is known to be a fanboy. And his name has been associated with several incarnations of the Royal Oak: a fitting watch to celebrate a man whose first nickname (from his bodybuilding days) was 'The Austrian Oak'.
Released in a limited run of just 500 watches, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 'End of Days' 25770SN.OO.0001.KE.01 was the first limited edition Royal Oak Offshore ever released, and also one of the first luxury watches in the world to be manufactured from black-PVD-coated steel. PVD stands for Positive Vapour Deposition, a process by which steel is hardened. The PVD coating renders the steel enormously resistant to scratching, corrosion and general wear, creating a metal that might just withstand the Apocalypse.
The Royal OAK 'EOD' was launched to celebrate the movie End of Days, in which Arnie plays a washed-up cop drawn into a battle with – you guessed it – Satan himself. Spoilers: Arnie more or less kicks the devil's ass. And he does it wearing a Royal Oak 'EOD' on his wrist.
That's a pretty cool origin story for a luxury watch. And the design definitely does it justice. The Royal Oak Offshore 'EOD' is a respectable 42 mm in diameter, and that black PVD-coated steel really works, making the chrono look like exactly the kind of watch an urban superhero might wear. The famous octagonal bezel, with its heavy-duty screws, looks the business in this matte black finish—industrial, slick, and tough as hell.
The bright yellow hour and minute hands, and the large, yellow Arabic numerals recall the neon skyline of New York (the setting for the movie). Turn the lights off, and the lume on the hands and numerals looks awesome: bright green, as though the watch has been painted in the same colour palette as the film's brooding night shots.
The dial is a deep black, and is inset with three subdials (12, 6, and 9 o' clock) and a date window (3 o' clock). The internal edge of the bezel is inscribed with a tachymeter. The subdials and dial form a 'vanishing' layer of 3D iterations, sinking further and further into the watch with each layer. The base layer, the dial's largest circle, is printed with a clous de Paris tapisserie.
Behind the dial, the automatic chronograph movement AP 2226/2840 delivers a 42-hour power reserve and 28,800 vph. The chrono functions are a central sweeping seconds, 30-minute elapsed time, and 12-hour counter. The third subdial is the continuous sub-seconds.
The crystal is sapphire glass, and the case is waterproof to 100 m.
Pop fact: there's also an ultra-rare Royal Oak Offshore 'EOD' reference—AR.01. If you ever get your hands on one of these, insure it. It's one of only four produced, and all were worn by the big man himself during shooting of the film.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 'End of Days' 25770SN.OO.0001.KE.01 is a tough sports chrono for a tough guy. Its Kevlar strap is the ultimate finish for a luxury watch that needs to stay solid in extreme circumstances. Only got one night to save the world? This is the watch you want to tell you how long you have left until Doomsday.
Image Credit – officialwatches.com vedere di piu rolex e Rolex Sea Dweller