Mark Zuckerberg sported a $900,000 piece of wrist candy as he announced the end of fact-checking on Meta
Mark Zuckerberg was seen wearing a Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1 on his left wrist (not pictured) while announcing the end of Meta’s US fact-checking partnerships on Tuesday.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sported a new luxury timepiece while announcing the end of his company’s fact-checking partnerships in the US on Tuesday.
Zuckerberg’s watch, a Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1, costs more than $900,000 and is assembled entirely by hand. Greubel Forsey says on its website that it makes only two or three models of the Hand Made 1 every year.
“Hey, everyone. I want to talk about something important today, because it’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram,” Zuckerberg said while wearing the Hand Made 1 on his left wrist in a video he posted on Facebook.
https://web.facebook.com/watch/?v=1525382954801931
When asked about the video, Greubel Forsey CEO Michel Nydegger told Bloomberg that Zuckerberg’s choice of timepiece showed a “true appreciation for the most traditional approach to fine watchmaking today.”
According to Greubel Forsey’s website, the “Hand Made 1” has 281 parts, most of which are made in-house by the watchmaker.
Meta and Greubel Forsey didn’t respond to requests for comment from B-17.
This isn’t the first time Zuckerberg has publicly demonstrated his interest in luxury timepieces.
In September, Zuckerberg wore a rose gold De Bethune DB25 Starry Varius during an interview with the business podcast “Acquired.” The watch costs about $90,000, according to listings by the watch retailers The 1916 Company and The Hour Glass.
Zuckerberg was also seen wearing the Patek Philippe Grand Complications In-Line Perpetual Calendar 5236P-001 when he posted a selfie with his wife, Priscilla Chan. The watch costs $141,400, according to Patek Philippe’s website.
Zuckerberg has expressed some interest in timepieces to other business leaders. At Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding party in March, he showed his admiration for Ambani’s Richard Mille watch.
“You know, I never really wanted to get a watch. But after seeing that, I was like, watches are cool,” Zuckerberg told Ambani, according to a video circulated on social media.
Joseph Rosenfeld, an image consultant in New York, told B-17 in September that Zuckerberg’s “love for premium watches and subtle luxury” suggested a shift in the Meta CEO’s style and identity.
“He’s stepping into a role where his appearance reflects his position as a tech innovator,” Rosenfeld said.
Zuckerberg’s penchant for expensive watches appears to be one facet of a wider image transformation.
For one, the Meta chief has ditched his gray t-shirts and hoodies, opting for shearling jackets and gold chains instead.
But watches aside, what Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday is set to have far-reaching ramifications on Meta’s approach toward content moderation.
Meta said it was replacing its fact-checking partners with a crowdsourced moderation tool like the community notes used by X, formerly Twitter.
“We’ve seen this approach work on X — where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see,” Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post.
“We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing — and one that’s less prone to bias,” Kaplan added.
