Watch Paparazzi

Footballer Memphis Depay spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Memphis Depay's arrival at FC Barcelona brought inevitable scrutiny to every detail of his public image, and sharp-eyed watch spotters wasted no time identifying the piece on his wrist: the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept 'Black Panther' Flying Tourbillon, reference 26620IO, one of only 250 examples ever made.

Launched by Audemars Piguet in 2021, the Royal Oak Concept 26620IO is built around a case combining grade 5 titanium with black ceramic — a construction that keeps the 42mm case surprisingly light despite its visual mass. The manual-winding Calibre 2965 beats at 21,600 vph and offers a 72-hour power reserve, with the flying tourbillon positioned at 6 o'clock. What defines this reference, however, is not the movement architecture alone but the hand-crafted black-lacquered panther rendered in three dimensions across the dial, its tail articulated by the escapement. The figure required hundreds of hours of hand-finishing by AP's artisans in Le Brassus.

From a collector standpoint, the Black Panther Concept occupies rare territory. It fuses AP's long-running Royal Oak Concept lineage — a platform introduced in 2002 expressly to push horological boundaries — with decorative sculpture of genuine craft complexity. The 250-piece limitation was absorbed almost immediately by the market, and secondary prices have moved well above retail since release. It is the kind of watch that serious collectors either secured on allocation or have been chasing ever since.

Depay has long demonstrated a taste for statement horology beyond the expected sports-world defaults, and the Black Panther is a coherent escalation of that sensibility. Wearing it at a moment when his professional profile was at a sustained peak — the Barcelona signing generating global press — placed the watch in front of an audience far beyond the collector community.

At a list price of $170,000, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Black Panther Flying Tourbillon ref. 26620IO already commands a premium positioning even within AP's own catalogue. On the grey market, where verified examples rarely surface, values have consistently exceeded retail — reflecting both the hard allocation cap and genuine demand from collectors who missed the original release window.