This Young Royal Oak Owner Wants to Disrupt Asia’s Luxury Watch Market

Austen Chu’s Wristcheck takes aim at young Asian collectors
Wristcheck raised $8 million from investors for expansion

Sean-Wong, Elton-Yau, Henek-Lo and Austen-ChuSource: Wristcheck

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By Andy Hoffman

February 24, 2023 at 11:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Austen Chu bought his first Royal Oak at 18 and soon parlayed snapshots of his wrist bling into a massive following on Instagram. That got him in with the storied Swiss watch brand Audemars Piguet, with whom he collaborated on a titanium perpetual-calendar special edition, exclusively for the Chinese market, in early 2020.

Now 26, Chu is turning from collector to CEO and co-founder as the head of a pre-owned online watch trading platform aiming to shake up the industry in Asia.