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John Mayer is behind a new Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar with Audemars Piguet
They’re limited to 200 units globally, and expected to sell for $180,000
Similar watches have flipped for over $500,000 in the past
If you haven’t heard, legendary watchmaker Audemars Piguet recently announced an upcoming collaboration with John Mayer. Yes, that John Mayer. In between tours with Dead & Company and dating superstars, Mayer is actually a renowned watch collector. The collaboration is extremely limited, extremely expensive, and potentially extremely lucrative for watch resellers. Here’s what you need to know.
So, yes, John Mayer is an horologist. If you’re already familiar with watches you probably know that already, but fans of the artist might be surprised.
Since 2012 he’s been an irregular contributor to watch supersite Hodinkee, and his interest goes deeper than the average “rich guy dropping thousands on Rolexes” trope. In 2012 he was invited to serve as a juror on the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie Genève, and in 2015 he composed an open letter to IWC protesting changes to their design philosophy.
Point being, he knows about watches. It actually makes sense for Audemars Piguet to bring him in on a special project, especially compared to previous high-profile collabs from stars like Travis Scott.
And what would John Mayer do with an opportunity like this? Well, let’s take a look. The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar “John Mayer Exclusive” (Ref. 26574BC) was recently announced, and John Mayer was also revealed as the brand’s new “Creative Conduit”.
It’s based on AP’s Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar, a five-dialed design that tracks the hour, day, week, month, and moon. The self-winding watch is powered by Audemars Piguet’s own calibre 5134.
The real unique aspect to this collaboration comes from the watch’s face. Mayer has described a “crystal sky”, represented here as a strikingly textured and visually deep dial.
Neat! If you’re not a watch person a lot this is probably going over your head (ours too), but we wanted to emphasize that this not your average celebrity cashgrab. Oh, speaking of money…
Really, really expensive. Maybe you’ve already picked up on this, but Audemars Piguet is very much a luxury brand.
But how expensive is really, really expensive? Well, we’re expecting to these watches to sell for somewhere around $180,000. So, that expensive.
These are limited to just 200 units globally. For such a high profile collaboration between a superstar and respected manufacturer, this price isn’t even surprising.
Don’t stop reading yet. Yes, this is an expensive-ass watch, but there’s an opportunity here for anyone to make money off of it.
First, let’s talk a bit how the market works for premium watches. If you’re an experience watch flipper you can skip down a few lines.
Watches like these are not sold directly from the manufacturer. Like expensive cars, expensive alcohol, expensive clothes, expensive anything; expensive watches are sold through dealers.
What dealers get what watches largely comes down to politics, and who gets to buy these watches from the dealers is also politics: your relationship with the dealer, what watches you’ve bought from them, who you know, etc. For a deeper dive into the world of flipping watches, check out our beginner’s guide here.
Chances are most of the John Mayer Audemars Piguet watches will be sold to established customers. Everything is opaque, there’s no way of knowing who’s getting what and when, and it’s unlikely a random person off the street has a shot at buying one of them.
But it’s not impossible. Depending on where you live and who else lives near you, there’s a chance that there is an authorized dealer in your area that is getting one of these but has no one to sell it to. It’s worth calling around to nearby Audemars Piguet boutiques and asking about one of these.
It’s a long shot, make no mistake, but the potential upside is huge. Remember those Travis Scott Royal Oaks we mentioned before? Those are listed for sale on Chrono24 for upwards of $500k.
Considering that most watch collectors actually really like John Mayer, this collection is expected to do even better. While Scott’s “Cactus Jack” collab inspired longwinded thinkpieces about “advancing the culture” and “bridging gaps”, Mayer’s is just a cool watch. It also helps that most of Mayer’s fans are out of high school.
And if you manage to secure an allocation, you have a few options. If your credit is good you can likely finance the watch and buy it directly from the dealer. You shouldn’t have any issues reselling it for more than you paid (although this will definitely burn any relationship you had with the dealer).
You might also be able to sell the allocation to someone else for a huge profit with no risk. We know it sounds bizarre to recommend the average person to buy a $180,000 watch, but this actually a great opportunity.
Why not make a few calls? Yeah, you’ll probably waste your time, but if you get lucky you could make $100,000 or more by flipping one of these watches.
A non-record flip for Record Store Day
Call that a Victory Royale!
