Serena Williams, the longtime Audemars Piguet ambassador, has launched her own version of the Royal Oak.
The sporting icon, who has been a professional tennis player for more than 30 years, has long worn Audemars Piguet both on the court and to events, with their partnership going back more than a decade.
Now, she is launching the appropriately named Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph “Serena Williams” Limited Edition.
The watch takes the standard 38mm Royal Oak and converts it into white ceramic with a bright pink mother of pearl dial. The hands and hourmarkers are made from white gold while the date window is also a flush pink, as is the rubber strap. The watch’s engraved sapphire caseback also allows you to see its 22 carat pink gold oscillating weight.
In a statement, Williams, who designed the watch, said: “Working with Audemars Piguet on this watch has been special because it reflects so many parts of who I am. I’ve always believed that strength and feminine energy can exist side by side. People often see strength, determination and competition, but there’s also creativity, intuition and joy.”
Audemars Piguet are also insisting that this is not a watch limited to women with the brand’s CEO, Ilaria Resta, saying: “I’m sure this watch will be on the wrist of men and women alike, because what is clear is that this narrative of women’s watches, men’s watches — for me, it does not exist. Even watches that have been designed with a woman in mind have been purchased and worn by men as well.”
The model is limited to just 500 pieces and will retail for £75,000.
Earlier this year, Audemars Piguet launched the new Royal Oak Offshore collection, which contained some of the bright and distinctive colours that came to define their wildly hyped and successful collaboration with Swatch.
In the 42mm range, the three watches feature luminescent hands, the hour markers in striking 18 carat gold and a tachymeter scale on the inner bezel. All three are also fitted with the Audemars Piguet caliber 4404 integrated flyback chronograph movement, which is the same as other Offshore watches.
The new titanium watch at 42mm comes in militaristic dark grey and is contrasted with a bright yellow chronograph hand and turquoise hour numbers while the AP logo is subtly to the left of the date window.
The two steel versions of the 42mm model come with bold orange or pink accents and are similarly striking.
The 37mm model features a relatively new calibre in the 6401 that was first seen on the fresh Royal Oak’s that were released earlier this year. AP have also made two of the three watches in the collection out of titanium, which is a first for the size of the pieces.
One titanium model has a robust grey case with an eye-catching blue dial to go with a matching rubber strap and is perfect for those who don’t have the wrist size to carry off some of AP’s bigger issues.
The watch is essentially a simplified version of the Offshore, which aside from its bright blue colour, is much more traditional than the 42mm.
Like this? Inside the Audemars Piguet x Swatch chaos: “It was like nothing I’d seen before.”
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