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Put David Moyes in a big hat and hand him a staff, and he may as well be Gandalf – because the way his Everton squad held a rampaging Manchester City to a 3-3 draw on Monday had big “you shall not pass (Arsenal to get to the top of the league)” vibes. Though he was understandably miffed not to beat Pep Guardiola’s team outright, giving City fans a bit more psychological torment will be seen as worthy service by many.
On a slightly less controversial note: take a look at what Moyes was rocking on the night in question. Though Everton might be sponsored by ascendant British watchmaker Christopher Ward, the gaffer kept it Swiss with an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak – and a rather classy one at that. With no complications beyond a date window, and a pink gold case that chimes very nicely with the black dial and alligator strap, this is a refined, properly grown-up Royal Oak. Moyes is 63; he’s been around the block. Not for him the perpetual calendars and skeletonised dials of this world – certainly nothing on the level of Pep’s many Richard Milles. As the scoreline told us, Moyes lost precisely nothing by swerving all that entirely.
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It also illustrates how, while the Royal Oak is the archetypal footballer’s (and football manager’s) watch, there’s more than enough variety within the design to suit every age and every taste. Kobbie Mainoo, the 21-year-old Man United star, for example, recently wore a steel Royal Oak chronograph that spoke to him very much being in the young-and-hungry stage of his career. Then between him and Moyes, you have all the ultra-technical Royal Oaks beloved by the biggest players: Lionel Messi, Virgil van Dijk and many more.
What about a Royal Oak for those of us without the kinds of salaries doled out in top-flight football? Well, there might be just the thing on the way in less than a fortnight. Swatch has been teasing a new collab that’ll be unveiled on the 16th, via the cryptic phase “Royal Pop”, written in the same font as the Royal Oak logo. Given the once-in-a-blue-moon success of the MoonSwatch, it’s not out of the question that the Royal Oak is going to be the next luxury watch to get a fun, accessible reinterpretation.
So: 10 more days of fevered speculation to come. Until then, David Moyes and the rest will keep proving why the full-fat Royal Oak is such a resilient (and versatile) flex.