Tech workers are showing off limited-edition customized Tudor watches commissioned by employee groups, turning corporate swag into collectible assets.
A post about custom Tudor watches made for Google employees sparked a wave of Silicon Valley workers showing off their own limited-edition timepieces on Monday. The thread quickly drew responses from staff at OpenAI, Palantir, Uber, and other tech companies, each sharing their company-branded watches.
Boris Power, OpenAI's head of applied research, posted a picture of the OpenAI version, which has the engraving "Good Research Takes Time" on the caseback. He said the run was "roughly doubly rare" at 400 watches. Eliano Younes, Palantir's strategic engagement head, noted that some of the data company's staff received a run of 468 watches. The Palantir logo on the watch face is small and inconspicuous.
Uber software engineer Alex Feng shared the ride-hailing company's model, with a caseback marked '1/100,' suggesting it is the first in a run of 100. Sebastian Speier, a former Instagram employee now at Perplexity, also posted a picture. Nate Lorenzen, who spent six years at Facebook, said employees there had custom watches made while he was at the company. He added that he was "dumb to not buy every single one of these."
The watches are not typical corporate swag handed out by management, like the Patagonia vests once common on Wall Street. They are generally commissioned by employee-run collector groups, according to Powerfunk, the managing editor of Grey Market, a luxury watch news site. Tudor's customization program requires a minimum order of 40 watches, and production takes about six months. Buyers pay full retail price. The Pelagos model used for Google's watches retails for about $4,500.
Each customized Tudor design is rare by default and often available only to the group that commissioned it. That scarcity can turn the watches into valuable collector's items on the resale market. A Google-themed Tudor featuring the Chrome dinosaur sold for more than $10,000 at auction earlier this year. An Apple "pirate" edition attracted a $13,500 bid. Comparable standard models typically resold for a fraction of those prices, Business Insider reported.
Luxury watches have become an increasingly visible status symbol among tech's biggest names. Mark Zuckerberg owns rare pieces worth millions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been spotted wearing an ultra-limited-edition $480,000 Greubel Forsey produced in a run of just 33.
Tudor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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