Paying for influencers to flash your brand’s wristwear on Instagram is so 2015. Simply making watches so desirable that megastars boast about buying them as gifts to themselves on social media is the ultimate power play today.
So it was in the aftermath of the wedding of pop superstar Justin Bieber to supermodel Hailey Baldwin, when the groom flashed a gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak to his 119 million followers on September 30.
Today, that post has been liked by 1.9 million people and stories have been popping up on the Internet ever since.
Google “Justin Bieber Audemars Piguet” and you will see hundreds of articles across celebrity sites, newspapers and even respected business titles.
Not quite as popular as the picture of the happy couple kissing on their wedding day (9.1 million likes), but a massive win for Audemars Piguet.
Beverley Hills jeweller to the stars, Jadelle, can be just as happy, as Mr Bieber tagged them in the post, thanking them for his AP watch.
Jadelle is well known for its celebrity clientele, and has 215,000 Instagram followers of its own.
Watch aficionados need no introduction to the classy yellow gold Royal Oak with its hexagonal bezel and screws framing the tapisserie dial.
The price Mr Bieber paid is unknown, with online speculation ranging from $50,000 to $65,000.
I thought the bezel was octagonal and the screws hexagonal!