Cover François-Henry Bennahmias and Don Cheadle (Photo: Audemars Piguet)

The luxury Swiss watchmaker announced yesterday it plans to partner with Marvel and its merry band of superheroes

We can totally see an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak on Tony Stark/Iron Man but (spoiler alert!) with his demise at the end of Avengers: Endgame, who else can you imagine strapping on this modern icon? Thor? Peter Quill/Star-Lord? Doctor Stephen Strange? 

Regardless, the Le Brassus watchmaker Audemars Piguet has revealed plans to collaborate with Marvel in the coming months. This has been a dream of CEO François-Henry Bennahmias for the last 15 years (sometime between the first Hulk movie starring Eric Bana and Iron Man) and it finally gained traction after he met Don Cheadle while standing in line at the Tony Awards. Cheadle portrays War Machine, a close ally of Iron Man, in the Avengers movies.

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"We owe the current collaboration to an unexpected conversation with Don Cheadle, a long-time friend who in 2017 called Marvel on the spot to arrange a meeting," he says. "It just goes to show that the most inspiring collaborative adventures result from meaningful human interactions and a strong will to never give up!”

Cheadle was equally enthused when the subject of a collaboration with Audemars Piguet came up. "When François told me about his long-standing interest in teaming up with Marvel, I said, ‘No time like the present. Let’s give them a call.’ As an Avenger and a long-time friend, it was a no brainer.”

At the moment, we have no idea what form this partnership will take. The details are still being kept under wraps, to be announced only in April. But if Audemars Piguet does make it into one of the movies or TV shows, it won't be the first time a major Swiss watch brand was given a prominent scene in a Marvel project—Jaeger-LeCoultre's Master Ultra Thin Perpetual made an indelible appearance in Doctor Strange.

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