How Horoloupe’s Austen Chu went from Instagram influencer to launching retail platform WristCheck and collaborating with Audemars Piguet on a China limited edition timepiece
Watch influencer Austen Chu, founder of Instagram account Horoloupe, has quickly risen to become an important voice in the world of watch collecting. The 24-year-old boasts 119,000 followers, and a quick scroll through his Insta page makes you feel like a child in a sweet shop: you are met with image after image of wrist shots showing limited editions and hard-to-find timepieces.
But not many know that Chu launched Horoloupe when he was 17 – “out of desperation and loneliness”, in his own words. “Watch collecting is an extremely knowledge-dense hobby, and for young collectors, it’s also an extremely lonely hobby … I wanted to feel a sense of belonging in the watch community, but most of the big watch accounts at the time ignored me when I reached out to them on Instagram with my personal, non-watch account,” he explains.
Chu made the decision to stay anonymous during the first two years of running Horoloupe. It was a long time to stay silent, especially when you’re really passionate about something. But, in the process of collecting watches, Chu has learned the value of patience.
“I strongly believe that the word ‘patience’ is inherently bound to the phenomenon of watch collecting, especially for brands that still put emphasis on hand finishing and incorporating the human element into watchmaking,” he says. “Wait-lists aside, waiting months and months, sometimes a year or more, is commonplace in watch collecting.”
Once Horoloupe picked up steam, it caught the eye of some of the most important players in the watch industry, including Audemars Piguet’s Francois-Henry Bennahmias, which led to a collaboration that resulted in the launch of Chu’s own limited run of the Royal Oak watch.
Fast forward to today and Chu is taking his hobby to the next level with a business that opens doors for watch aficionados: he is set to launch retail platform WristCheck, which is dedicated to pre-owned watches.
“I’ve been working on this project all year and it’s finally launching in December,” he says.
Austen Chu’s watches
Another project that shows just how far Chu’s influence has spread, came with Audemars Piguet agreeing to offer a limited edition dedicated to the Chinese market.
“I had asked if they had any plans regarding creating a limited edition for the Chinese market in the near future, which I learned they did not. I simply followed up by asking if I could propose an idea for a watch that AP and I could create together for China, and the rest is history!”
Independent Swiss watch brands MB&F and H. Moser came together for one of Chu’s favourite pieces of the moment, the LM101. He has described this collaboration to his Instagram followers as “an art piece for the wrist”.
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With Chu’s resale site set to launch, he recalls how his Horoloupe Instagram page won him attention and picks his watches of the moment including an arty collaboration between MB&F and H. Moser