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Entrepreneur Gianluca Vacchi spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Gianluca Vacchi, the Bologna-born entrepreneur and self-styled digital hedonist, was recently spotted wearing one of Audemars Piguet's most extravagant production references: the Royal Oak Offshore Ref. 26215OR.ZZ.A801CR.01, a diamond-pavé, pink gold statement piece that sits at the absolute top end of the Le Brassus manufacture's regular catalogue.

The Royal Oak Offshore line was born in 1993, designed by Emmanuel Gueit as an oversized, sport-aggressive evolution of Gerald Genta's original 1972 Royal Oak. The Ref. 26215OR takes that already bold architecture and amplifies it through material and gem-setting: the 42mm case and octagonal bezel are rendered in 18-carat pink gold and then submitted to AP's in-house diamond-setting workshops, where skilled lapidaries pavé-set the lugs, bezel, and crown in brilliant-cut diamonds. The dial is executed in a rich brown tapisserie pattern — the iconic small-square guilloché that has defined the Royal Oak aesthetic for over five decades — with applied pink gold hour markers and a date window at three o'clock. The sapphire crystal is double anti-reflective treated on both sides, what AP terms glareproofed, ensuring legibility despite the surrounding brilliance.

Powering the Ref. 26215OR is the Calibre 3126/3840, a self-winding movement with a column-wheel chronograph module — though this particular reference is the time-and-date variant driven by the Calibre 3120, AP's robust 40-jewel automatic with a 60-hour power reserve and a frequency of 21,600 vph. The movement is visible through a sapphire caseback, its bridges decorated with Geneva stripes and bevelled edges consistent with AP's finishing standards.

Among collectors, heavily diamond-set Royal Oak Offshores occupy a specific niche. Purists tend to favour the steel or titanium sport references, but the pink gold diamond variants carry genuine secondary-market traction among buyers in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America — markets that drive significant volume for high-jewellery complications. The Ref. 26215OR is a production piece rather than a one-off, yet its diamond count and labour intensity ensure limited availability.

Vacchi's affinity for conspicuous luxury is well documented across his social platforms. A pink gold, diamond-set Royal Oak Offshore fits seamlessly into a wardrobe that routinely features custom cars, private yachts, and designer everything. At a UK RRP of £125,000 — translating to approximately $158,000 at current exchange — this is one of the pricier standard-catalogue references AP produces, and grey-market premiums on pink gold diamond Offshores remain modest given their niche but steady demand.