Serena Williams has worn Audemars Piguet watches for years. This time, she did more than put one on her wrist.

The tennis icon collaborated with the Swiss watchmaker on a limited-edition 38 mm Royal Oak Selfwinding Chronograph created in white ceramic, with a pink-tinted mother-of-pearl dial and precious-metal details. The result reflects Williams' personal taste while remaining a technically serious Royal Oak chronograph.

A Partnership More Than a Decade in the Making

Williams has served as an Audemars Piguet ambassador since 2014. According to Vogue Business, this watch grew out of that long relationship rather than a short-term celebrity endorsement.

Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta described the collaboration as part of the company's effort to learn from culturally relevant partners and engage a broader, more diverse luxury audience. Although its 38 mm case and pink accents may appeal strongly to women, the company is not positioning it as a strictly women's watch.

The Watch

The Royal Oak uses a white-ceramic case, bezel, crown, pushers and integrated bracelet. Its pink-tinted mother-of-pearl dial means the natural material can shift visually as it catches the light, so no two dials will appear exactly identical.

Reported details include:

  • 38 mm white-ceramic case and bracelet
  • Pink-tinted mother-of-pearl dial
  • 18-karat white-gold hands
  • Rhodium-toned 18-karat pink-gold hour markers
  • Pink date display
  • Sapphire caseback
  • 22-karat pink-gold winding rotor
  • Additional pink rubber strap

Inside is Audemars Piguet's automatic caliber 6401, an integrated chronograph movement with a column wheel and vertical clutch. It has an approximately 55-hour power reserve.

The edition is limited to 500 pieces. Hodinkee reports a price of CHF 70,000. That figure is Hodinkee's reporting, and it should not be read as a confirmed United States retail price.

More Than a Celebrity Watch

Celebrity ambassadors often appear in watches selected for them by a brand. This collaboration is different because Williams helped shape the finished product.

That distinction matters. Athletes are becoming creative participants in luxury rather than simply serving as faces in advertising campaigns. Williams brings her own ideas about performance, scale, color and femininity to one of watchmaking's most recognizable sports-watch designs.

The watch also challenges the old habit of separating luxury watches into rigid men's and women's categories. At 38 mm, it sits in a versatile middle ground, while the ceramic construction and chronograph movement give it far more substance than a jewelry watch designed only for appearance.

A Jewelry-Like Approach to Watchmaking

From a jeweler's perspective, the combination of polished white ceramic, mother-of-pearl, pink gold and white gold gives the watch much of its visual impact.

Mother-of-pearl is not merely a flat dial color. It is the iridescent inner layer of a shell, an organic material rather than a gemstone, and its play of light changes with the lighting and the viewing angle. The pink-gold rotor, visible through the caseback, turns a mechanical component into part of the decorative design.

That balance, technical watchmaking on the inside and jewelry-like light, color and finishing on the outside, is what makes this collaboration more compelling than a standard celebrity release.

The Bottom Line

Serena Williams has spent decades changing how people see power, femininity and performance in sports. Her Royal Oak collaboration carries that same perspective into luxury watchmaking.

She did not simply wear the campaign. She helped create the watch.

A note on identification: this story is about the new limited-edition white-ceramic chronograph, which is a 500-piece run and not a one-of-one watch. It should not be confused with earlier black-ceramic Royal Oak references that still surface in search results.