Audemars Piguet 38mm Royal Oak Chronograph

Like the new Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar launched last year, the Audemars Piguet 38mm Royal Oak Chronograph adopts a gradual rather than revolutionary improvement; essentially, it's still the same watch, just better. Audemars Piguet clearly understands that this watch must neither undermine previous successful designs nor fail to perfectly address the challenges it faces. Best luxury Audemars Piguet Royal Oak clone watches online, buy replica watches at firstwatchclone.

The challenge lies precisely in its nearly 40-year-old movement platform, which is now quite outdated. The 38mm Oak Chronograph has always used the 2385 movement, also known as the FP1185, now the Blancpain 1185 automatic chronograph movement. While its slim 5.5mm size remains impressive even today, its performance is truly lacking. 

The most significant change in the Audemars Piguet 38mm Oak Chronograph, model number 26450, compared to its predecessor, is the replacement of the old model with the new Audemars Piguet in-house 6401 automatic chronograph movement. This movement has a diameter of 27mm and a thickness of 5.7mm. Although its size is 0.8mm larger and 0.2mm thicker than the old 2385 movement, its performance and practicality improvements are truly revolutionary. Firstly, the frequency has increased from 21,600 vibrations per hour in the 2385 to 28,800 vibrations per hour. Secondly, the power reserve has increased from 40 hours to 50 hours, and an instantaneous date has been added. However, the most crucial highlight of this movement is its new vertical clutch control system.

This entirely new control method eliminates the previous pawl springs, operating only the first pawl and the second pawl with an integrated spring plate via the column wheel. This makes the chronograph pushers lighter to the touch, although not as light as the RD#5, but effectively reduces wear between the pawls and the column wheel. After pressing them, the feel was essentially the same as the 41mm Oak Chronograph, and compared to the older model, it's a complete blowout. Of course, this new structure has one drawback: it doesn't support flyback. But thinking about it, if it did support flyback, the 4401 movement of the 41mm Oak Chronograph would be unnecessary https://www.firstwatchclone.co/.

Besides the stunning new vertical clutch control, the upgrade to the escapement, which is of utmost importance to me, is a complete departure from the 2385. It not only features a free-sprung balance wheel and a transverse balance bridge, but also incorporates an in-line micro-adjustment balance wheel derived from the RD#3 and previously only found in Audemars Piguet's 7-series movements. And now, we can finally admire the movement's exquisite finishing through the transparent case back on the 38mm Oak Chronograph. While the exterior remains largely unchanged compared to the stunning movement, subtle adjustments have also been made to the details.

To accommodate the 6401 movement, the 12-hour and 30-minute chronograph subdials have been swapped. Secondly, while the three subdials are now the same size, the subdials at 3 and 9 o'clock have been slightly moved upwards, with their centers now crossing the center line of the dial. Thirdly, the date window is now perfectly positioned at the center of the 4 and 5 o'clock markers. Finally, Audemars Piguet has recalibrated the hour markers to match the new movement's 4 Hz frequency, and the two chronograph pushers are now further away from the crown. These seemingly minor details make this new 38mm Oak Chronograph appear more spacious and less crowded.