Travis Scott is one of the hottest names in music; and Audemars Piguet is notorious for doing things daringly different. So it's less a shock, and more a pleasant surprise to see the two link and successfully light up the internet with a new killer watch – not to mention a tonne of co-branded merch in a nuclear-level street culture collab with Travis Scott's Cactus Jack label and brand.
He's worked with everyone from Beyoncé and Bad Bunny to Drake and Future in the music sense, dipping his toes into the fashion world with the likes of Dior and Nike, so AP feels like a very natural next hook up.
Co-designed by Travis Scott, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked “Cactus Jack” Limited Edition is loaded with design motifs from his Cactus Jack record label and becomes the first ever AP in brown ceramic.
So much more to unpack. First, the specifics of the 200-piece edition watch (which is worth 178,000 CHF). Scott, already an AP wearer, asked for the watch to be in brown ceramic, a material AP knows well but not in that colour. That’s a big style and tech moment for one of the world’s most in-demand watches – and it looks kinda utopian paired with the brown leather ‘textured jeans effect’ strap. Scott’s calling it ‘The Chocolate AP’, which mega fans of his will have picked up from his summer hit single ‘Meltdown’.
It’s a high-complication with a perpetual calendar (that’ll keep showing the correct date, even accounting for leap years, as long as it’s wound), but with bespoke detailing pulled from Cactus Jack’s palette.
So the day, date, month and week indications are all in script, the moonphase is the brand's smiley face with its mouth sewn shut logo, and the hand pointing to the day of the week is shaped like the Cactus Jack logotype.
On the case back, you get ‘Utopia State of Mind’ in the same script, a nod to Scott’s fourth studio album Utopia, – one the hottest of 2023 – and a gold rotor with a central spindle also in the shape of the logotype. When the lights go down, the hands and sub-counter details glow blue or green.
Then there’s the merch, a landmark for high-end Swiss watchmaking. Who else from the old guard would drop a capsule of hoodies, tees, pyjamas, shorts and caps co-branded with a streetwear brand?
They’re all set to be sold through Scott’s own ecomm platform, and the promise is part of the proceeds will be going to a charity project or cause of Scott’s choice. AP has said it won’t take a penny from the collection, which is limited, but to unknown quantities. As oblique at the moment is pricing and availability, but only a fool would bet against it shifting in a New York minute.
And to every good story, there’s an even better backstory. AP has rewritten the rules of how old-school Swiss watch companies operate over the past two decades, repositioning itself – and by extension the industry – in street and popular culture. The strategy can be traced back to the Arnie watches of the late ‘90s and early ’00s, but it was the 100-piece, US-only collaboration with Jay-Z in 2005 that really moved the needle. That opened the door to collabs with the likes of LeBron James, Marvel and most recently Matthew Williams, each time setting fire to the internet in a way most watch brands could only dream of.
This will also be a last hurrah for outgoing AP chief exec François-Henry Bennahmias, the disruptor-in-chief behind these collabs, before he retires from the role at the end of the year. As the Travis Scott tie-up shows, he leaves very large shoes to fill.