When the well-known luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet officially announced last month that it would join hands with Swatch to launch a joint product, many Audemars Piguet collectors were pessimistic about the brand's prospects. Rapper DDG bluntly stated that if the scale of this joint venture continues to expand and lowers the brand's style, he will sell his Audemars Piguet watch worth US$180,000. Members of the watch enthusiast community warned that this high-end brand, which ranks among the "three sacred brands" of watches and is famous for its complex movements and original designs, is now making affordable plastic watches.
Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop series of watches
However, a few weeks after the launch of the joint Royal Pop series, Audemars Piguet’s second-hand watch market prices have been trending steadily. Although the industry has generally predicted that brand scarcity and brand value will shrink significantly, industry experts said that Audemars Piguet's brand foundation has not been shaken.
Hamza Massoud, head of cooperation at WatchCharts, a watch market data platform, said: “Judging from the price data, the launch of this joint new productIt has not yet had a significant impact on the mainstream Audemars Piguet watch market.. "This platform has long-term tracking of second-hand quotations for Audemars Piguet's full range of popular styles.
Massoud said that although the product has only been around for a short time, this Royal Pop with bright colors and worn with a lanyard is a key step in Audemars Piguet's long-term layout and attracting a new generation of collectors.
The public price of Audemars Piguet's signature product Royal Oak generally exceeds US$50,000, and popular models often require waiting in line for several years to purchase. The Royal Pop series lowers the entry threshold for the brand and reaches young consumer groups and female customers.
“The market generally recognizes that this joint product will not substantially damage the core of Audemars Piguet’s brand. This product is not positioned as a conventional wrist watch, so it will naturally not impact the value system of the Royal Oak’s original collection circle.”
However, Audemars Piguet still faces challenges brought by the industry environment.
Second-hand watch market conditions
After luxury watches experienced a round of speculative bubbles during the epidemic, the industry's market prices plummeted in 2022, and it was not until recently that it gradually bottomed out and stabilized.
The Audemars Piguet Index (which includes the brand's 30 main models) compiled by WatchCharts has fallen by about 40% from its high point; the second-hand prices of the remaining two watch giants, Rolex and Patek Philippe, have also dropped from their historical peaks.
Platform data shows that in the first quarter of this year, the average second-hand price of Audemars Piguet increased by 2% month-on-month, Rolex increased by 1.7%, and Patek Philippe increased by 3%; Audemars Piguet's inventory turnover cycle is longer than the other two major brands, which reflects that the mismatch between supply and demand is more prominent.
Massoud said frankly: "At this stage, Audemars Piguet's market recovery is not as strong as the other two top luxury watch brands."
But the Royal Pop series has brought Audemars Piguet something hard to buy with money: it has sparked heated discussions on social media and information platforms. Massive exposure has leveraged the brand's favor among teenagers and young people in their twenties, and these consumers may grow into potential buyers of Royal Oak in the future.
Audemars Piguet is still a family business, with an annual output of only about 50,000 pieces. Compared with Rolex's annual output of more than one million pieces, the brand's business layout is based on a cycle of decades, rather than quarterly or short-term considerations.
"Brand bet: Even if it causes criticism from senior collectors in the short term and loses some reputation in the traditional watch circle, it has gained brand awareness and trend influence in the public circle. From a long-term perspective, this cooperation actually strengthens the brand's soft power."