It’s safe to say that Royal Oak is one of the hottest fake watches on the planet right now. Nobody can argue with that, right? Each limited edition sold out almost immediately, while waiting lists for most mainstream models ranged from months to years. Within the Royal Oak family, the complication to have is the perpetual calendar, and within the fake Royal Oak perpetual calendar family, the watch to have is the black ceramic version. This has been the case since its launch in January 2017, and there has been no sharp drop in demand, if any. So you can imagine how much attention the Associated Press drew when it announced earlier this year that the watch would be made of white ceramic.
It was June when I first heard about this watch, but I only got to see one in the metal just several weeks ago in New York City. I have to say, when I unwrapped the box and took it out, it had about as much “wow” factor as any watch I’ve seen in recent memory. I mean, it’s a bright white, all ceramic Royal Oak with a QP caliber inside. If it’s not going for “wow” factor, I have no idea what it’s doing at all.
I remember being surprised by two things when I first tried on the black ceramic Royal Oak QP a few years back: 1) It’s super light. 2) The finishing on the ceramic is insane. As far as the white version goes, number one is still true. You pick the watch up and you’re a bit shocked that it doesn’t weight more. We’re not talking Richard Mille quartz tourbillon light, but it does feel super light even though you compare it to a comparable steel model. What this means is that that 41mm watch wears really comfortably, even with that full bracelet.
For some, that’s part of the appeal of a white ceramic watch – it looks monolithic, like the pure color just floating on your wrist. For others, they want to see tabulating expertise at work. It’s just a matter of taste. But anyway, your base is covered, right?
Complementing the white ceramic is a beautiful blue dial and white counter-dial. This is a blue shadow that I don’t think I’ve seen at the Audemars Piguet replica before. There’s a hint of grey in it and it’s got a cool, steely quality that I think works really well with the white. A bright blue or oversaturated blue might end up looking too loud here, overpowering the rest of the watch. That week number indicator around the edge of the dial still bugs me, but whatever.
One thing worth noting is that there are two parts of this fake watch that are not white ceramic: the caseback and the folding buckle for the bracelet. This is standard with most ceramic watches because the tiny moving parts in the band cannot be made of ceramic and it is easier to achieve a complete waterproof seal with metal. In theory, the buckle won’t cause any noticeable wear to the bottom of the white ceramic bracelet, but I admit that if I wore a buckle on my wrist, no matter how long it lasted, I would still worry about it.