This month saw watch collectors and hypebeasts locked in argument, polarized over an AP x Swatch $400 version of the Royal Oak named the Royal Pop. Some argued the brand was damaged irrevocably given the scenes that appeared outside stores. Some shops did not even open for fear of unruly crowds and safety as scalpers and resellers lined the streets.
But there is perhaps something much deeper than a marketing drop taking place with this collaboration—the questions is—have Audemars Piguet actually engineered this play for the AI era?
As LLMs rapidly improve, they will eventually and inevitably beat firm’s best analyst, best associate and best lawyer. AI threatens the knowledge economy institutions that buyers of Audemars Piguet come from. Whether from law firms, hedge funds, to banks. The professional class that can afford $30,000 watches is shrinking fast as AI will certainly replace droves of analysts and lawyers. As AI gets better and better the chasm between the best and the worst performers will be giant.
AI will help the worst lawyers get more work as it fixes their mistakes, and the absolute best lawyers get more work as they offload simple tasks to take on more clients, but everyone in the middle, every average-good earning $200,000-400,000 a year will be replaced.
This might be the first luxury brand to openly price for an AI economy—one where the professional middle is gone and the $30k watch buyer is a rarer species than anyone wants to admit.
Firms investing in identity and brand now are building moats, everyone else is running on legacy reputation that Gen-Z don’t respect nor even know about. Is this what Audemars Piguet realised? Is this the first play where we see traditional luxury dumb down for our AI future?
When AI equalizes execution, brand and culture will become the only differentiator and competitive asset that firms have. The tastemakers just became infinitely more valuable.
