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Singer The Weeknd spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

The Weeknd has been spotted wearing the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept 'Black Panther' Flying Tourbillon, Reference 26620IO — one of the most visually arresting limited editions the Le Brassus manufacture has produced in its recent history. The sighting confirms the Abel Tesfaye collection continues to push well beyond conventional luxury watch territory into genuine haute horlogerie.

Released in 2022 as a collaboration between Audemars Piguet and Marvel, the Royal Oak Concept 26620IO houses Calibre 2974, a manually wound flying tourbillon movement beating at 21,600 vph with a 72-hour power reserve. The defining technical achievement is the tourbillon cage itself, which is hand-engraved and shaped into a three-dimensional Black Panther figure — a micro-sculpture suspended at six o'clock on a skeletonized forged carbon and sapphire dial. The 42mm case combines grade 5 titanium with black ceramic inserts, and the characteristic Royal Oak Concept octagonal bezel is rendered in sand-blasted ceramic. Water resistance is rated to 20 metres, appropriate for a dress-sport watch of this complication level.

The Royal Oak Concept line has historically served as AP's experimental sandbox, first introduced in 2002 as a showcase for avant-garde case architecture and movement engineering well outside the core Royal Oak DNA. The 26620IO takes that mandate further by integrating fine art and pop culture directly into the movement architecture — the tourbillon as kinetic sculpture rather than pure complication. Production was capped at 250 pieces globally, a number tight enough to ensure genuine scarcity without tipping into unobtainable micro-edition territory.

The Weeknd's relationship with Audemars Piguet is well established; he became a brand ambassador in 2021 and has worn multiple Royal Oak references publicly. Owning the Black Panther Concept, however, signals something beyond ambassador obligation — this is a piece serious collectors compete for, and wearing it casually is a statement in itself.

On the secondary market, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Black Panther 26620IO commands significant premiums over its already substantial $170,000 list price, with authenticated examples trading meaningfully above retail through major auction houses and grey-market dealers. For a 250-piece limited edition of this cultural and technical weight, that trajectory is unlikely to reverse.