There are many titles you can put in front of Serena Williams’s name. Of course, there’s number 1 ranked tennis star and four-time Olympic gold medalist. And there’s mother, entrepreneur, producer, and style icon— adventurous with her looks on the court before anyone else was doing it. Now she adds another: watch designer.
On the heels of the U.S. Open, Williams is collaborating with Audemars Piguet on a limited edition wristwatch in white ceramic and pink mother of pearl. And as Williams tells it, this was inevitable. “Watches are my life,” she says, noting that she’s a long-time collector.
But time is something she doesn’t have a lot of these days. On top of juggling two young daughters, returning to the court dominated much of her summer. She spoke with VF ahead of the tournament about having her daughters experience this moment in her career, and what she would spend time on if she had an extra hour.
When Audemars Piguet approaches you, how involved are you with the design choices for something like this?
Very involved, but it’s so intricate. Being able to spend time in Switzerland at the headquarters was really good and really fun and being able to see how the pieces actually worked and to understand what to pick out. But for me, it was really about empowerment and picking. And pink’s my favorite color.
What are other ways that you treat yourself?
I don’t. I think that’s the thing. We become mothers and we do a lot and we never take a breath and we never stop. And even now I’m running from training to meetings to putting my baby down to this. And it’s like I never take a minute to just say self-love time, which is super important. It’s also good just to be okay with giving yourself something nice.
Well, speaking of time, if you had an extra hour in a day, what would you spend it on?
I mean, I would [spend it] laying down because I don’t get to do that enough, but my kids wake up very early, so I don’t know. I’ll probably spend it on cooking or being with them. See, like I just told you, I never spend any time on myself and a lot of women are kind of like that.
Courtesy of Audemars Piguet
