It’s a little after 10pm in Seoul and I’ve stepped outside for some air. Inside, a party sheathed in red pulses away in the heart of Futura, a modern art space. Outside, the streets of Bukchon Hanok Village, a restored traditional quarter of Seoul. On the way back in, I spy Yoon Ahn, quite possibly one of the coolest jewellery designers around, leaning against the doorway. I stop to say congratulations to her. She smiles, disarmingly, warmly, shaking her head a little and saying “It’s still sinking in.”
We are in Seoul to celebrate and inaugurate the launch of a new Audemars Piguet collaboration. Yoon and Verbal, the dynamic creative partners and co-founders of Ambush Design, have partnered with the Swiss watchmaker to create their version of the Royal Oak Concept, a futuristic watch that was introduced in 2002.
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Yoon and Verbal’s fashion label Ambush helped create the junctions of streetwear, luxury and high fashion that is so common today, and their über cool cachet helped usher in the age of the collab. But at the time of that party in Seoul, Audemars Piguet had released an earthshaking collaboration of its own: a tie-up with Swatch that inspired mania and frenzy, and proof in its moment that everyone in the world, it seems, really wants an Audemars Piguet
“Just to let you guys know,” Verbal admitted with a bit of a laugh earlier in the day during an intimate roundtable, “it’s slowly sinking in for us finally as well.”
The Ambush designers were joined by Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta, the latter sharing that the spirit of collaboration was at the heart of the watch brand even before it became such an industry buzzword. She referenced the traditional Swiss établissage system, in which artisans and specialised workshops, she said, “brought their point of view and their expertise. We were, in a way, coordinating the work, but importantly learning from the work of the artisans.”
‘Humbling’, in fact, was the word Resta used to describe the experience with Yoon and Verbal. When the design duo got the call from Audemars Piguet, they zigged where others might have zagged. Instead of thinking what they could add or put on a Royal Oak Concept, Yoon and Verbal went about reducing the watch to its essentials. “In terms of design, the face is already so beautiful. We took away a lot of the things I felt were not necessary, just to see what would be the point of those things,” Yoon explained.
After removing the decorative, what they were faced with was a flying tourbillon—the pulsing, beating mechanism of a fancy timepiece. That’s where the design started. “The tourbillon is like the heart of the watch and we wanted to emphasise that,” said Yoon. They took inspiration from stars and the movements of celestial bodies, the pre-mechanical modes of measuring time, and added starry aventurine glass to the dial. The astronomical connection got them thinking, said Yoon, of Mars energy, a kind of take-charge-and-go bravado.
“Red signifies power. It’s the Earth’s core, it’s our favourite colour, and we wondered why the heart of the watch—the tourbillon—has never been red,” said Verbal. “This was the question and conversation we were having with the craftsmen in Le Brassus.” The answer, as it often is in haute horlogerie, is never quite so simple. Mastering materials, treatments, finishes and colours is delicate work, but Audemars Piguet came back with an answer: how about crafting the tourbillon cage in red anodised aluminium?
“Every time we would suggest some design, they would have to go back and make sure that it wouldn’t compromise the function,” recounted Verbal of the process, which took around three years to complete. Yoon, too, admitted candidly her surprise at how concessionary Audemars Piguet were. “We thought they were going to be much more ‘no’ than ‘yes’,” she said with a laugh. “We would just throw ideas—can we try this material, these colourways?—and they were willing to try everything.” Trying to get the perfect finish and shade of red, in fact, pushed the project back a little. No matter. For Verbal, “that was something we learnt, that slow process always breeds good product.”
The result is guileless and potent, recognising the simple, affective power of a colour well chosen. Their Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon is starry and subdued, and the eye is drawn immediately to that spinning mechanical wonder in red. It is mesmerising and special, and yet the understated styling of the watch as a whole has an at-ease look—courtesy, no doubt, of designers who know best what cool looks and feels like. “It has to be beautiful, it can’t just work,” Verbal emphasised. “If you just wanted to look at the time, we have our smartphones. But we have an art piece on our wrist and it’s something to not only admire but understand that it’s a piece of history.”
In fact, Yoon has been embedded in a historic legacy house before, previously as the jewellery designer for Dior. “Watchmaking is completely different from the fashion system,” she offered as a comparison. “Here’s something that we designed that’s going to last longer than just a season. We’re thinking 20 years down the road, is this still going to look fresh? As a design, the pure form, is it going to be something you’re going to enjoy with the mechanics decades down the road?” She got a little starry eyed then. “And this other thing just hit me: it’s going to outlive me on Earth.”
The July/August 2026 ‘Audacity’ edition of Vogue Singapore is available online and on newsstands.
