Footballer Virgil Van Dijk spotted wearing a Audemars Piguet

Virgil van Dijk was recently captured in what appears to be a controlled editorial or media setting, examining a red-strapped Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Liverpool FC special edition laid flat on a white surface before him. The Dutch defender, one of the most decorated players of Liverpool's modern era, wore a second Audemars Piguet — a rose-gold Royal Oak Offshore — on his own wrist during the session, signalling a genuine affinity for the Le Brassus manufacture rather than mere association.

The watch on the table is immediately identifiable as the bespoke Liverpool FC Royal Oak Offshore chronograph. The case measures 44mm, housing AP's calibre 3126/3840 automatic chronograph movement — a column-wheel mechanism offering 60 hours of power reserve with a 21,600 vph frequency. The dial features the club's red livery, with a black and red colour scheme carried through the sub-dials and counters. The signature octagonal bezel — an Gerald Genta design first introduced in the Offshore in 1993 — is rendered in steel, and the bracelet configuration is replaced here with a bold red vulcanised rubber strap, a material AP has long championed for its Offshore sport variants.

These club-commissioned Royal Oak Offshores are not standard retail pieces. Produced in extremely limited numbers and distributed exclusively to squad members, management, and select club figures, they carry no official reference number in AP's commercial catalogue. Versions linked to Liverpool's 2019-20 Premier League triumph — the club's first title in 30 years — are documented but their exact production run has never been publicly confirmed by either party. That scarcity makes them effectively uncirculated on the open grey market, and when examples do surface, prices are speculative and demand-driven.

Van Dijk joined Liverpool in January 2018 for a then-world-record fee for a defender. His contribution to the club's Champions League victory in 2019 and the Premier League title in 2020 makes him one of the most significant figures associated with this watch. The piece is, for him, not memorabilia — it is a marker of achievement.

For collectors, the Liverpool FC Royal Oak Offshore occupies a compelling niche: a manufacture-level timepiece with genuine sporting provenance, produced outside normal commercial channels. Its value is inseparable from its story, and van Dijk's ownership places it firmly in the upper tier of football-related horological artefacts.