OpenAI Customizes Seven Vanguart Swiss Watches, One Retained by CEO, Six Reportedly Given to Core Personnel
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commissioned 7 OpenAI-themed watches from Swiss independent watchmaker Vanguart, with 1 retained by himself and the remaining 6 reportedly given to core personnel of the company. The series is based on the Vanguart Orb, with a starting price of approximately $180,000 for the regular version.
The watch dial features the OpenAI logo, and the rotor is engraved with "COMPUTE IS DESTINY"; the crown button is engraved with "SCALING". These elements embed OpenAI's current narrative on computing power expansion and large-scale training into the mechanical watch structure.
The case back is inscribed with Python syntax "if AGI.aligned: deploy()". Vanguart Chairman Mehmet Koruturk stated that the design aims to express that artificial intelligence should serve peaceful purposes, with the inscription making AGI alignment a prerequisite for deployment.
Vanguart has produced fewer than 200 watches to date, and they are sold in the U.S. through only one jewelry retailer. About one-third of the company's 33 employees participated in the making of these 7 custom watches, indicating that its production system mainly serves extremely low-volume, highly customized orders.
Altman has previously been seen wearing a Swiss Greubel Forsey watch valued at approximately $650,000. This Vanguart order is not the first instance of OpenAI launching internal custom watches: the company had previously commissioned a batch of Tudor watches engraved with "Good Research Takes Time".
High-end independent watchmakers do not sell standardized timepieces but rather scarce production capacity, design participation rights, and identity recognition rights. Vanguart gains high-margin custom projects and brand exposure related to OpenAI; OpenAI internally receives exclusive gifts and organizational symbols, while regular luxury watch buyers find it difficult to obtain the same level of customization and limited configurations.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Sam Altman's consumer choices and OpenAI's organizational symbols have been intertwined. OpenAI previously commissioned about 400 Tudor watches engraved with "Good Research Takes Time", which served as a larger range of employee memorabilia; this time, only 7 Vanguart watches were commissioned, with a value benchmark leap from Tudor's traditional luxury to independent high-end watchmaking. Greubel Forsey is also known for its extremely low production, complex movements, and pricing in the collector's market. Altman previously wore a watch worth about $650,000, indicating that this is not a one-time marketing purchase but an extension of his existing collection preferences into the company's internal circle.
In terms of capital pathways, OpenAI has not delegated such internal incentives to large-scale luxury brands but has directed its budget and attention to Vanguart, which has produced fewer than 200 watches. About one-third of Vanguart's 33-person team participated in the making of the 7 watches, meaning the project utilized not assembly line supply but limited watchmaker hours, design iterations, and small-batch manufacturing capabilities; thus, the brand can convert a customer order into an endorsement within the global tech elite circle. For OpenAI, the 6 external gift watches lock in high-recognition recipients with extremely limited quantities, where cost is not the focus, but exclusivity serves as the incentive mechanism.
This differs from Apple's early practice of awarding engraved memorabilia to employees and Silicon Valley companies using custom Patagonia vests to build identity symbols: the former emphasizes coverage and organizational belonging, while the Vanguart project focuses on scarcity levels. It is also closer to the traditional finance industry's use of limited edition watches, private wines, and club memberships to maintain core relationships. OpenAI is transitioning from a research institution to a large-scale computing power, model deployment, and corporate commercialization platform, with "Compute is Destiny" and "SCALING" directly inscribing the resource logic of this phase into objects.
At its core is capital concentration: as the thresholds for model training, chip procurement, and data center construction continue to rise, a few institutions capable of mobilizing computing power, financing, and talent will form stronger centralized organizational structures. Limited custom items do not determine technological competition but reveal the distribution methods in an era of scarce resources: mass-produced products face the public, while extremely scarce items serve the most concentrated nodes of decision-making, capital, and technological resources; brands and organizations reassess relational value based on "non-replicability".
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Standardized products sell functionality, limited products sell entry rights
The more concentrated the computing power, the more expensive the circle symbols
The ultimate goal of technology is scale, while the starting point of power is scarcity