Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Joins Audemars Piguet as First NBA Ambassador

Welcome to Maximalist, where luxury speaks loudly.
Each week, we curate the most indulgent, headline-making announcements from the world of high fashion, fine living, and unapologetic excess.
Ten minutes. Zero restraint.

In this 74th edition, we cover Shai Gilgeous-Alexander becoming Audemars Piguet’s first NBA ambassador, Calvin Klein’s NYFW comeback, and the potential end of the luxury waitlist era.

Let’s dive in.

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4. Hermes Sales Outperform EOY 2025

On this week’s agenda:

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Joins Audemars Piguet as First NBA Ambassador

2. Calvin Klein’s NYFW Comeback

3. Is Luxury’s Wait-List Era Cooling Off?

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Joins Audemars Piguet as First NBA Ambassador

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has officially been named a brand ambassador for Audemars Piguet, bringing one of the NBA’s brightest stars into rarefied company within the world of luxury watch partnerships. This move places Gilgeous-Alexander alongside the only other NBA players in history to hold direct relationships with the Swiss maison—LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal—and marks the first such appointment since those legendary figures. The announcement underscores AP’s continued interest in aligning its heritage of craftsmanship with athletes who shape contemporary culture.

To celebrate the partnership, Audemars Piguet hosted an event this past Friday, February 13, at the AP House in Los Angeles. Friends, athletes, and industry tastemakers gathered for the announcement and festivities, highlighting the cultural resonance of this collaboration. AP’s newly appointed CEO of the Americas, Louis-Gabriel Fichet, was in attendance alongside NBA All-Star Devin Booker and college football standout Caleb Williams to mark the night. At the event, SGA was seen wearing the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50” ceramic—a deep blue high-tech ceramic model with a perpetual calendar and integrated bracelet that showcases both innovation and refined design.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s basketball journey has been defined by steady ascension and standout performance. Drafted 11th overall in 2018, he quickly established himself as a dynamic guard with a smooth offensive repertoire and a growing reputation for leadership. Over recent seasons he has evolved into an All-Star-level talent, anchoring the Oklahoma City Thunder’s offense and emerging as one of the league’s most respected players. His blend of skill, focus, and rising star power makes him a compelling face for a luxury watch brand that prizes both performance and distinctive style.

The announcement places Gilgeous-Alexander at the forefront of Audemars Piguet’s cultural narrative at a moment when luxury and sport intersect more visibly than ever. With only a handful of NBA players having held formal ambassadorships with AP, this move signals a new chapter in how the brand engages with athletes who influence fashion, lifestyle, and global sports culture. The Los Angeles celebration—complete with strategic leadership presence and notable peers in attendance—reinforced the significance of this partnership for both SGA and Audemars Piguet as they look ahead.

Calvin Klein’s NYFW Comeback

The Calvin Klein Fall/Winter 2026 collection, shown at New York Fashion Week on February 13 at The Shed in Hudson Yards, presented a reshaped vision for the brand under creative director Veronica Leoni. Now in her third season leading the Calvin Klein Collection, Leoni’s lineup leaned into the house’s roots while articulating a distinctive mood that the fashion world broadly described as both minimalist and sensually charged.

Leoni spoke of her intent to revisit the period when founder Calvin Klein was first forging his identity in the late 1970s and early 1980s—an era defined by clean lines, underwear-inflected silhouettes, denim, and a near-obsessive focus on the body. Her Fall/Winter 2026 collection interpreted those influences through tailored and body-aware pieces, amplifying them with materials and design decisions that read both contemporary and referential.

The shapes were restrained but muscular, with tailoring that suggested structure rather than softness, and pieces that played with cutouts, layering, and exposure in a way that felt deliberate rather than provocative for its own sake. Leather, shearling, and archival-inspired denim appeared alongside more conventional wool and suiting fabrics; the resultant silhouette balanced architectural precision with a sense of ease.

Coloration stayed grounded in Calvin Klein’s classic palette—black, ivory, and gentle grays dominated—while richer neutrals such as deep burgundy and clementine provided punchier contrast. The overall mood was controlled and intentional, with visual cues that referenced the brand’s minimalism while broadening its emotional range.

Makeup and hair echoed the collection’s ethos. Styling favored sleek, wet-look hair and softly sculpted faces, drawing focus back to the clothes’ structure and silhouette on the runway.

Compared with earlier seasons, this outing felt like a refinement: less about overt flash and more about defining a coherent point of view. In a fashion calendar crowded with spectacle, Leoni pared back to essentials, using proportion, material, and body awareness to articulate an interpretation of Calvin Klein that was rooted in heritage but calibrated for 2026.

Is Luxury’s Wait-List Era Cooling Off?

For years, waiting lists were a defining feature of the luxury market—queues for Hermès Birkin bags and Rolex watches signaled intense demand and strategic scarcity. Today, data suggests those lists are getting shorter, reflecting shifts in both demand and resale dynamics in the high-end goods market.

Historically, brands like Hermès and Rolex have deliberately constrained supply to maintain exclusivity. That scarcity pushed buyers onto waiting lists that could stretch for years for the most coveted products—like certain Birkin sizes at Hermès or sought-after Rolex sport models from authorized dealers. But recent resale trends show weaker premiums on the secondary market, implying underlying demand pressure is easing.

For Rolex, average resale premiums—a proxy for demand intensity—have dropped significantly over the past few years. Average premiums have fallen to roughly 7% above retail, about half their level earlier in 2024. This follows broader declines in resale value for other high-end watches, including Patek Philippe models, where premiums shrank from much higher peaks.

A similar pattern is evident among Hermès Birkin and Kelly handbags. While resale prices still exceed retail on average, premiums have retreated to their lowest levels seen since the mid-2010s once auction fees and commissions are factored in. Larger Birkin and Kelly bags in particular are selling at or near retail on secondary platforms, suggesting that intense competition to join waiting lists is diminishing.

Several factors are driving these changes. The market appears to be returning to pre-pandemic norms after years of speculative buying that inflated prices and waiting lists. At the same time, increased supply on the secondhand market—people selling high-value watches and bags for cash—has boosted availability and softened price pressure. Higher primary-market prices in recent years have also dampened resale demand.

Shorter waiting lists have tangible effects. In the past, securing a Rolex sport model or a classic Birkin often required years of purchasing other brand goods and building dealer relationships. As demand intensity softens, luxury buyers may find access easier than in the peak scarcity era. But the shift also highlights a broader luxury market in transition, where extreme scarcity is giving way to more normalized supply-demand dynamics.

Glad we could help indulge your weekly craving of all things luxury.