Mark Zuckerberg Picked the Wrong Watch to Announce Meta’s New Oakley Sunglasses

Editors at nearly every media outlet on the planet would rightfully accuse me of burying the lede here. Still, anyone familiar with our work at GP knows we’re wired – for better or worse – to focus on a level of product culture most people aren’t even aware of.

Case in point, Meta has announced a new addition to its line of surprisingly successful smart glasses, which we named one of the most important gadgets of 2024, except this time, the shades are made in partnership with Oakley.

While the shades are a notable improvement over earlier versions, which we’ll dig into in more depth in another story, what caught my eye the most in Zuckerberg’s personal announcement post on Threads wasn’t sitting on his face but perched on his wrist.

As he’s been known to do lately, Zuckerberg shared a picture of himself wearing an impressive and exclusive watch that many horological sleuths can easily identify.

But in my humble opinion, he could’ve chosen a far better watch for the occasion that would’ve showcased his relatively newfound watch knowledge in an entirely different way.

Quite the Collection

Threads @Zuck

As my former colleague Oren Hartov has documented extensively over at GQ over the last year or so, Zuckerberg has quickly evolved into a serious watch collector in a relatively short period.

Thanks to selfies posted on the social media platforms he owns and a devoted plague of paparazzi, eagle-eyed watch nerds have now spotted him wearing all manner of coveted and/or interesting timepieces, ranging from several awe-inspiring pieces from F.P. Journe, to more mainstream but classic Patek’s or an iced-out vintage Rolex Daytona and even a hand-made Greubel Forsey that costs $900,000.

Purple Reign

De Bethune

No watch on earth seems out of reach for the man that Bloomberg currently ranks as the second-wealthiest human on earth, with a net worth of merely $245 billion as of publication.

Given these facts, it’s unsurprising that he also owns the De Bethune DB28xs Purple Rain, which he picked to wear while announcing Meta’s new line of smart glasses with Oakley.

Due to its iridescent purple hue, unmistakable case, and floating lug design, it’s a watch nearly anyone will notice. Still, only horological enthusiasts would fully appreciate precisely what it is.

De Bethune

In case you’re like most and not familiar with De Bethune as a brand, it’s a high-end independent watch brand co-founded by master watchmaker Denis Flageollet, who at least one watch publication has loftily compared to Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor and horological genius.

When Flageollet started the brand in 2002, his aspirations were as grand as they come in watchmaking. Rather than creating watches that relied on parts and components sourced elsewhere, he aspired to build a proper “Manufacture,” which in French watch speak, refers to a tier of watch brands capable of making most, if not all, of a watch’s key parts entirely in-house.

De Bethune

Today, De Bethune’s watches are hard to miss and easy to recognize once you’ve seen one. They’re boldly designed, unique, and often strikingly colorful and meant to speak to elite collectors who prioritize innovation, novelty, creativity, and exclusivity above all else.

In the company’s partially cringeworthy words shared in a press release, “De Bethune does not simply create watches, but timeless works of art.”

De Bethune

The Purple Rain, launched in early 2024, follows this blueprint to a T, with a few key differences. The Prince-approved shade is a notable departure from De Bethune’s signature blues. And at 38.7mm, the Purple Rain is part of De Bethune’s smallest watch family (hence the “xs” in the name).

Almost everything on the watch is made from ultralight, grade 5 titanium. Its rich purple hue comes from anodizing the metal at ultrahigh temperatures and polishing it to a mirror finish. The brand invented the ‘random guilloché pattern’ dial to evoke the stars’ reflection in the sky.

Only 25 examples were produced at a price of roughly $100,000.

A Missed Opportunity

Oakley

Credit to Zuck. The De Bethune DB28xs Purple Rain is a watch-collecting flex that vibes quite well with the bolder, retro-future aesthetics Oakley is known for.

But he also blew a golden opportunity to showcase his horological knowledge in a humbler and funnier way.

After all, in the photo, Zuckerberg is seen wearing an Oakley Shirt to match his Oakley shades. And as Alex Rakestraw deeply covered at High Snobiety almost four years ago, Oakley also produced line of wild-looking timepieces, like Time Bomb, Torpedo, and Bullet, from 1998 through 2015. At least a portion of the product line was nearly revived as recently as 2020.

Ebay user California Direct

Though I can’t claim that any of the Oakley watch designs match my tastes, their bold and surreal silhouettes align nicely with the more avant-garde looks of modern haute horology brands like De Bethune.

Zuckerberg could’ve also picked at least some Oakley watches up on eBay for less than $399, which is what the Oakley Meta HSTN (pronounced how-stun) smart glasses will cost when they launch later this summer.

The silver lining here is that since Meta and Oakley’s parent company, EssilorLuxottica, announced a new long-term agreement to work together over a decade just last year, chances are Zuckerberg will have another shot to remedy his mistake sometime in the future and show some love to one of the most distinctive and fascinating watch lines of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Related Topics