Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore 'End of Days'

Overall Condition: Excellent overall condition with only minor wear showing on the bezels. The crystal, dial, and hands are all in excellent condition. Audemars Piguet, the vaunted manufacture from Les Brassus, wasn't doing so well at the end of the 1960s.

Their horological prowess aside, times were changing, customer tastes were evolving, and AP was stuck firmly in a very traditional past. Fortunately for us, their executives recognized this, and bet it all on the launch of an avant-garde timepiece the likes of which the world had never seen.

Utilizing the talents of a designer named Gerald Genta, AP planned from the beginning to make their new watch, dubbed the Royal Oak, a contradiction to tradition, and it became the world's first luxury sports watch — made in stainless steel, no less.

The gamble paid off: Genta became a household name, and the watch world clamored to get their hands on the Royal Oak’s cutting-edge design, which featured a sharply angled watch with integrated bracelet, micro- tapisserie dial, and ultra-thin movement.

In 1993, the Royal Oak line expanded to include the Offshore Chronograph, which has driven the bulk of sales for Audemars in the past few decades.