Audemars Piguet Reveals Collaboration With Yoon and Verbal Ambush

May 26, 2026
Fashion & Beauty
Words:
Maria Joudina

Audemars Piguet’s latest Royal Oak Concept arrives via a collaboration with Yoon and Verbal of Ambush – a pairing that feels less about branding and more about shared design language. The limited-edition Flying Tourbillon was unveiled in Seoul at a star-studded launch event, before debuting as the newest addition to the Royal Oak Concept line in a refined 38.5mm titanium case.

For the duo, the appeal of the Royal Oak has always been instinctive. Yoon points to the watch’s strong geometry and disruptive history as the initial draw, while Verbal recalls discovering AP through the Royal Oak T3 in Tokyo years ago – a moment that eventually turned into collecting, studying and obsessing over the brand’s more experimental pieces.
“Coming from a graphic design background, I’ve always been drawn to designs with really strong geometry and clear lines,” Yoon says. “The moment I saw the Royal Oak, I immediately connected with it.” What followed was a deeper fascination with the story behind it – particularly how Gérald Genta’s original 1972 design disrupted the Swiss watch industry during the rise of quartz movements. “It felt like one of those spontaneous ideas that completely changed the course of things.”
Verbal’s relationship with AP was slightly more visceral. “I walked into a watch store in Tokyo and saw the T3 model,” he says. “It was screaming at me.” That first encounter eventually led him toward the original Royal Oak Concept from 2002 – a watch he still considers a grail for its experimental approach to contemporary watchmaking.
That same spirit carries through this collaboration. Earlier Royal Oak Concept models often leaned heavily technical, here the proportions feel noticeably more considered. “When the 38.5mm version came out, I thought, this is perfect,” Yoon says. “I’ve always wanted a mechanical watch that felt modern and hybrid in its design language, but still wearable.”
The watch leans into the Royal Oak Concept’s futuristic codes without feeling overly engineered. Its openworked construction reveals AP’s Calibre 2982 movement beneath a black aventurine dial, while a vivid red flying tourbillon – crafted in anodised aluminium – cuts through the otherwise monochrome palette with a sharper sense of energy and movement.
“Red has always been a powerful colour for us,” Verbal says. “The tourbillon is the heart of the watch – the force that keeps everything in motion.” For the duo, the colour references something deeper and almost elemental: heat, energy, the Earth’s core.
Multiple visits to Audemars Piguet’s headquarters in Le Brassus informed the final design. More than the mechanics themselves, it was the history and human side of Swiss watchmaking that stayed with them – particularly the story of farmers in the Vallée de Joux turning to watchmaking during winter months, laying the foundations for generations of craftsmanship.
“What amazed us was that, without modern technology, these craftsmen understood mechanics with incredible precision,” Yoon says. “There’s something deeply human and poetic about that level of craftsmanship.”
That idea of slowing down became central to the project. Throughout the development process, AP’s designers and engineers worked closely with Yoon and Verbal to balance technical function with aesthetic instinct – an approach the duo say reshaped the way they think about process itself.
“One of the biggest lessons we learned is that slowing down can actually be a good thing,” Verbal reflects. “Today everything moves so quickly, but true quality takes time.”
That thinking extends beyond the watch itself. Even the presentation case was approached differently. Rather than creating something designed to disappear into storage, Yoon and Verbal imagined a sculptural object intended to exist openly within a living space. Its spherical form echoes the same architectural language found throughout the watch.
The result is a Royal Oak Concept that feels slightly softer in attitude than previous iterations – still futuristic, still technical, but grounded in wearability and restraint rather than spectacle. More than anything, the collaboration feels like a genuine exchange between different creative worlds: fashion, music, industrial design and traditional watchmaking, all meeting somewhere in the middle.

 

 

audemarspiguet.com
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