Audemars Piguet

I've been wearing my Dawn of the New Day Offshore recently. For those who don't know this watch, it was one of a handful of prototypes that PuristS founder Dr. Thomas Mao made which had a prototype black PVD like coating where the black coating is somehow...  

I think of Thomas occasionally, I hope he is doing well.... Cheers, Filip

Thanks for the pictures. I hope Thomas is well. I thoroughly enjoyed the Purists trip to Le Brassus back in 2006. All the best, Jon

I remember it and am glad you still enjoy it.

Thomas had some of these watches from AP with various coatings. Not sure how many were made. I know there were some Royal Oaks too, and maybe a different metal for one of them (including the bracelet).

but I believe definitely less than 10 total, and each one ws different.

instead, these were for select clients, which makes these pieces truly unique and special. Excellent story 🤩

I designed the watch dial itself including choosing the hand colors including the chronograph hands. Certain combos were denied, and I ended up with this design which was approved by AP.

So, even the name is basically what you chose to call it i.e. it’s not from some movie. Great name 👌🏽

Great to hear from you Anthony - Hope you are doing well! Love this piece - wish they put Arabics in the new Ceramic Offshores because I would totally go bonkers on those. Please post more often - I still remember your old Panerai and Barrichello RG posts... 

It's very sharp and I especially like the color of the hands and the way they stand out against the black and white dial/numerals. M4

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I didn’t know this one. It has similarities to the End of Days ROO. The name of it makes me think that they are indeed complementary pieces. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

hence why I named mine Dawn of the New Day!

But I don’t remember the details on the process. Can you share? Was it done aftermarket (I think yes). Has the process been used commercially for other watches at this point? If not, why not as it seemed like it addresses a major complaint for traditional... 

and got permission by AP to make these prototype coating pieces. There were 2 batches made. The first batch, the coating wasn't as even. Improvement was made in the 2nd batch. Serial # engravings on the case back show if these pieces were part of Batch #1... 

What a super cool watch. To have the ability to do something like that with a brand like AP is obviously extremely rare if not impossible these days. Not that any old watch buyer could do it back then either, but certainly the doors of the brands were muc... 

Thanks for sharing and great to read you, Alex

Fantastic to learn and to see!