As I mentioned before, Audemars Piguet makes a superb self-winding movement, the 3120. It is used as a base in the modular Offshore watches, but in this smaller, thinner Royal Oak, it is not used. There are a few reasons for this, one of which is it simply wouldn’t fit in the existing case depth – the Royal Oak Chorno is 10mm thick, while the average ROO chronograph is over 14mm. Second, there exists a fantastic alternative that works flawlessly in the RO chronograph – the F. Piguet caliber 1185. The 1185 is one of the great movements of our lifetime, featuring remarkably smooth actuation, an 55-hour power reserve, an incredibly thin profile, and high-end technical traits like a vertical clutch and a column-wheel.

The 1185 is an integrated chronograph and a great one at that – needless to say, it is not made by Audemars Piguet. No, no, it’s technically a Blancpain movement, though despite the Swatch Group’s efforts to re-brand F. Piguet as “Manufacture Blancpain” (and Lemania as “Breguet,” for that matter), nobody calls it that. Though, if one were to try to visit F. Piguet's website, you'd see this. But, this chronograph is indeed sourced from Swatch, who acquired F. Piguet some years back, and according to them, this is one movement they have no plans on holding back from selling to at least two very important customers – AP and Vacheron Constantin (who uses it in its Overseas line). Swatch does reserve special variations of the 1185 for Blancpain's use exclusively, such as in the Rattrapante Flyback we showed you here.

Do I wish this watch used an in-house chronograph? Absolutely. Do I wish it adopted the Offshore methodology of coupling AP’s 3120 with a module? Not for a second. Case profile is extremely important to me, and I imagine it is for many other Royal Oak lovers. The Piguet 1185 is is a lovely movement with perfect size and functionality for this watch. I can see all the comments now – “I’d never buy a chronograph this expensive without an in-house movement,” and that’s certainly an opinion worth respecting. After all, there are now some lovely in-house chronographs out there from the likes of Rolex, TAG Heuer, Omega, and even Breitling. But, to be frank, there isn’t much in the way of competition in the true high-end sport category (the aforementioned brands should be considered “tool” watches).

Vacheron doesn’t have its own self-winding chronograph, Lange doesn’t either (though, of course, they don’t make sports watches). Girard-Perregaux’s Sea Hawk uses their in-house 3300 caliber with a Dubois-Depraz module on it, similar to the way the Offshore is constructed, and doesn’t really compete with this model as much as the ROO.

No, the Royal Oak chronograph is something of a dressier sports chronograph (if that makes any sense), and the only true competitor in this space is Patek Philippe’s 5980 chronograph, which indeed has an in-house self-winding movement. Actually, I take that back. Blancpain uses an in-house self-winding movement in its sports chronographs, as does Breguet. But they’re using the exact same caliber that's in this AP. So again, before everyone freaks out about this watch not using an in-house movement, remind yourself there is but one manufacture who does so, and it’s Patek Philippe, and for a lot more money. More to come on that later.

So AP's caliber 2385 (what they call the 1185) might not be an in-house job, but it's still a great movement. The actuation on the pushers is just lovely, and with a vertical clutch, you get very little chrono-skip on start and stop. This movement, in this case, feels very high-end. And similarly to how collectors prefer the Lemania-based Patek chronographs to the current in-house models, a small part of me wonders if we might see the same thing when AP (or Vacheron) unveils their own self-winding movements. That's not to say Patek's in-house movements aren't great – they are – but along with the new movements came dial changes and case changes, which not everyone liked. The Royal Oak Chronograph as it is right now is an excellent watch. I am certainly all for the development of an in-house self-winding movement and I'm sure it's coming, but as it stands today, I am perfectly happy with the Piguet 1185 powering this chronograph.