The Royal Oak Offshore (ROO) from Audemars Piguet has long been a favorite watch in the replica collector community.  It’s replicas have been riddled with flaws and quality concerns for years.

Recently the replica watch manufacturers have stepped up and improved on the design of the ROO significantly.  Two of the major flaws that have existed in the watch (missing or incorrect date cyclops and second hand not running at 12-o’clock, but incorrectly at 9 o’clock) have been corrected in the latest version.  It runs a modified Asian 7750 movement with an extra module to reposition the second hand to 12.  Such modifications are typically rife with problems, affecting the lifespan of the movement.  This particular mod seems to have an added jewel to help in this regard, but the jury is still out on how reliable it is.

Several flaws still exist, such as the silver around the date and the incorrect numerals on the dial (missing lume completely, and they should have metal surrounds).  Lume in general is replica-bad.

Priced at $600 it seems typical of the new crop of "1:1" replicas that are starting to become more and more common.  There are rumors of a "cartel" that keeps the prices high in an attempt to maximize profits.  Only "cartel" dealers seem to have access to these higher-end watches.

I asked several replica watch dealers a set of questions designed to get to know them and their involvement in replica watch production and sales. The first dealer to respond was “Puretime”, also known as Angus. Below are the interesting answers he provided to my questions.  Thanks Angus!

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Angus (Puretime) posted the final pre-production version of the new Audemars Piguet Royal Oak replica watch on TRC. So far it looks amazing. The case thickness and band thickness are spot on. If it has the heft that it looks like it has it’ll be the most accurate AP Royal Oak replica watch on the market. The big downer at this point is the date window. Although it has the cyclops the size and shape of the window are incorrect.

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