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For years, Audemars Piguet (AP) timepieces were regarded as a mark of success for a certain kind of crypto bro. Over the weekend, the watchmaker announced that it’s collaborating with Swatch, an entry-level watchmaker.
The “Royal Pop” collab has, in the eyes of crypto investors who bought into AP’s ostensibly exclusive brand, destroyed its reputation as a wealth signal for crypto bros who’ve made it.
Indeed, Protos spoke with two watch resellers who say that complaints from AP owners are “raining in.”
The AP watch that inspired the upcoming Swatch design, AP’s Royal Oak, has long sold for north of $30,000. Models of Royal Oak with more rarity, such as the 15202ST, have even resold for six figures.
To the dismay of collectors who thought AP would protect its brand, both companies called the partnership a “disruptive collaboration that fuses joyful boldness.”
Translated into crypto jargon, it was a rug-pull.
Crypto Twitter understood the framing immediately. “Imagine owning a Royal Oak and a dude in a Swatch comes up to you like hey man nice watch I got one too 10/10 for crypto influencers all over again lmao.”
Another commentator wrote what others were thinking: “The crypto bros can finally get their AP. Even the ones who roundtripped their entire port or are down 96.69%. Shoutout to Swatch.”
An NFT veteran with more than 277,000 followers laughed, “Can’t wait to buy my black royal oak x swatch so I can act like a cool kid at my next crypto event.”
AP’s Swatch collab, announced over the weekend, drops on Saturday, May 16. In plastic. For approximately $500.
High-end AP watches like Royal Oak earned the attention of newly enriched crypto influencers. Their watches had scarce supply, cultural cachet, a chart that only went up.
From 2019 to early 2022, AP prices charted like a crypto runner.
The Royal Oak 15202ST Jumbo averaged about $21,800 on the secondary market in 2016, per dealer data. By 2021, it averaged $69,000. By 2022, it peaked near $106,000.
The move tracked the crypto bull market in lockstep which peaked in November 2021, before losing two-thirds of its value within 12 months.
Even before this week’s disappointment, dealer data showed AP 15202ST watches changing hands at roughly one-third less than their 2022 peak.
Even prior to the Swatch collab, AP has performed the worst this year among its big three Swiss peers on the secondary market.
AP resales struggled to stay up just 3.4% according to SwissWatchExpo and Le Watch Buyers data cited by Borro. In contrast, Patek Philippe gained 16% and Rolex added 8%.
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