Expert analyzes luxury brand collaborationfrom @professorpanache

Transcript

About the Audemars Swatch collaboration. The watch community was reacting to this alliance as though civilization itself had fallen. One group was widely announcing the theatrical obituary, the end of AP's Nia. The other half was as vilely waving about tier moon swatch like it were the dead sea scrolls of modern marketing. So what are my thoughts? First, no. This is not the end of AP. I mean, please. AP has survived the POTS crisis. Economic collapse. Rappers, footballers, crypto millionaires, middle aged hedge fund managers teaming their skeletonized perpetual calendars with those hideous orange loafers and grown men referring to their watches as investment pieces while financing them over seventy two months. This brand is not going to be undone by bio ceramic or even queues equaling the distance of the moon and back around every Swatch store on this planet. And secondly, no. This is not another omega moment. That comparison itself is intellectually lazy. The Moon Swatch worse because it allowed millions to cosplay the romance of the Speedmaster all at the price of a mildly responsible dinner in Mayfair. Fine. I'll accept that the Speedmaster was always aspirational, but fundamentally, it's always been as accessible as a McChicken better. AP is different. Actually, dramatically different. The emotional architecture for Royal Oak is built on distance, on unobtainability, tier the quiet insult of a boutique associate explaining the concept of allocation to a man who is already wearing a Patek. You do not democratize that. You cannot democratize that. Which is precisely why this collaboration could have been truly interesting. Not because it would have become another moon swatch hysteria moment. And certainly no because it could destroy AP. I mean, seriously, a colorful swatch that looks like a toy that was sold by some Gubarewala or something that came out of a breakfast cereal box is hardly the asteroid event that's going to take this titan down. Sorry. Not that titan. What this outing does is exposes the strange evolution of modern luxury itself. The old aristocratic frumpy model of exclusivity is fading away slowly better surely. And that is a good thing. But you must also understand, Audemars is not giving that exclusivity up. It's at best allowing a little sag on the velvet rope. They rent out access to a passing fantasy while keeping the real kingdom entirely untouched upstairs. The swatch buyer gets a fleeting sip of the champagne. The AP client, the one wearing the Royal Oak jumbo, still owns the vineyard. And remember, if you believe a collaboration featuring a plastic watch can destroy an old guard of authorology, perhaps your understanding of luxury was embarrassingly shallow to begin with.