Four years ago, on the occasion the 20th anniversary for the Audemars Piguet Replica, or AP ROO, when Revolution asked Le Brassus what they had planned, the answer was that, rather than announcing anything two decades later, they were working towards something special for the 25th anniversary in 2018, which is 2018.
Audemars Piguet Replica had also celebrated Gerald Genta's Royal Oak 1972 40th Anniversary earlier in 2012. There was a window of opportunity for a possible smaller-scale event.
Wei Koh was Revolution's Editoral Director at the time. He shared that the 1993 original version of the Offshore with the blue "petite Tapisserie", guilloche-style dial, he thought to be the best. The sentiment set in motion a series of thoughts for Mr. Bottinelli. He then asked the authorities if they still had any original dials from the 1993 watch. He knew that the extra dials had been made for customer service.
Bottinelli, when he discovered that at least 20 dials were available, thought this was a great opportunity to create the "original" Offshore as a limited-edition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the watch. Le Brassus had to give his blessings for the project to move forward.
When the proposal was presented in collaboration with Revolution Mr. Bottinelli told us the following about the response he had received: "They (Panerai Luminor Chrono Replica) thought it was a good idea, and I am happy because Le Brassus always says "no". They know it's easy to find 20 people in Singapore that love the original Offshore, and want to celebrate this limited edition with an original dial from 93.
From the outside, it was a copy of the original 25721 ST or "The Beast" as the watch is known in the collectors community. To make this limited edition different from the original 1993 piece, some changes were made.
The first deviation was to use the more recent AP calibre 3126/3840. The original Offshore was equipped with a JLC movement and a Dubois Depraz module. The watch was required to have a caseback that could be opened because the reissue would be equipped with AP's workhorse.