The duo have masterminded a Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon, graduating from AP collectors to collaborators in the process. And they spoke to Wonderland all about it. 

If last week’s AP x Swatch Royal Pop-induced hysteria showed us one thing, it’s that boat loads of people want a slice of Audemars Piguet. That includes Yoon Ahn, creative director and co-founder of fashion and jewellery label AMBUSH and her partner, music producer, fellow co-founder, and chief executive Verbal (born Ryu Yeong-gi). But they aren’t just stacking them, they’re making timepieces with the Maison. Yep, the duo has teamed up to take the Royal Oak Concept collection into its next chapter. “We have done lots of collaborations, but this was special because it was actually the first very mechanical luxury item we’ve had to work on,” says Ahn. “I knew the approach was going to take time in terms of process, approval, and testing, which took about three years to complete.” 

The Royal Oak Concept was first introduced up in 2002 to celebrate the Royal Oak – the legendary sports watch inspired by the porthole of a ship and designed by watchmaking GOAT Gérald Genta in 1972 – as it turned 30. And it’s been the watch where some of Audemars Piguet’s craziest creations have flourished. Take 2002’s OG, the CW1 and its combination of a titanium base plate and bridges and shock-protecting tourbillon bridge, or 2024’s mad collab with artist KAWS, as examples.

Ahn and Verbal’s three-years-in-the-making addition to the series (limited to just 150 pieces) is a 38.5 mm titanium beast. Your eyes will likely lock onto the hypnotic tourbillon anodised in red, reflective of its role at the watch’s heart and also nodding to the colour of the earth’s core (which if you deep it, is basically the start of all of time, like a mega movement powering all of us). It contrasts with a deep black aventurine dial, encompassed by mirror-polished silver-grey toned bevels. 

Adding to the watch’s oomph are 18-carat white gold hands with lume for visibility, and there’s a minute track on the inner bezel. And in case you needed any reminding of how serious the AP watchmakers in Le Brassus take this stuff, look at the Calibre 2982 movement. It’s made specifically for Yoon & Verbal’s Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon shown off through an openworked design. If you fancy, you can change over from a black strap to a red version, too. Other than that, the watch has a time-only display, to avoid overdoing things. “I was wanting to see how minimal and beautiful we could make it,” says Ahn, who admired the Concept series from afar until she got the chance to create a scaled-down watch suited to smaller wrists. 

A combined aesthetic push isn’t a surprise, given the duo’s shared love of the Royal Oak. It was the first luxury timepiece that Ahn bought with a hefty paycheck. Take a quick scroll through her IG, and you’ll see her love for stripped-back time and date models (she intends to wear her latest creation with everything from sweatpants to evening dresses). Verbal, familiar with AP’s standing in the music sphere, is the proud owner of the OG Royal Oak Concept from 2002, favouring more complicated watches generally. Now, they’ve got the best of both worlds with their collab piece, pairing high horology with a design approach that favours necessity. “The pieces that we collect, especially, are very unique. We always seek moment pieces, something that drove new innovation, and obviously looks good using new types of materials. [Yoon] likes it simple, I’m more of a complication guy,” says Verbal.

Sharing a crush on rare watches is one thing. But making them called for a different approach than what they’ve done previously. The duo’s usual work spans from lighter holder necklaces and slogan rings (we’re looking at you 2008 POW! rings) to tweed jackets, and sell-out sneakers, with Pharrell Williams, Zendaya, and Rihanna as fans. The Concept series required them to slow down, and recalibrate. “We work in this very [fast-paced] fashion calendar. As much as we like to think like we’re working on things that could last a long time, fashion is a little bit more celebrated when it creates the urgency of what’s now and then we want the next new thing,” says Ahn. “Being able to work on this helped us [and] helped me, especially as a designer, to think long-term more, and also to start focusing on the things that really matter within the design space.” 

What mattered with this project? Size, tourbillons, titanium cases, and colour. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon x Yoon & Verbal has them all. It’s positioned well to whet the horological appetite of ardent collectors this year, alongside buzzy releases like the Chanel J12 Diamond Tourbillon Calibre 5, and Vacheron Constantin Overseas Tourbillon Deep Red. But it goes beyond mad scientist-tier craft. Through its latest partnership, Audemars Piguet has turbocharged its watchmaking with a design language built through fashion, jewellery, and music and scaled it down to a size that suits more wrists. If you’re wondering what that feels like, take it from collector turned collaborator Ahn: “Finally we have the size that just sits perfectly, even on my thin wrist,” she says. “It’s like you’ve finally found your Cinderella shoes.”

Words – Ollie Cox