$100K humanoid robot strolls into New York Rolex store to leave everyone dumbfounded
Published on Aug 11, 2025 at 8:06 AM (UTC+4)
by Molly Davidson
Last updated on Aug 07, 2025 at 2:07 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
A humanoid robot just waltzed into Rolex like it owned the place.
New York’s Fifth Avenue has seen its share of flexes, but this one is on a whole other level.
Meet KOID: a $100,000 Chinese-built machine with a smooth stride and a taste for luxury.
It wasn’t lost. It wasn’t malfunctioning. It walked in, scanned the displays, and asked to try on a GMT-Master II.
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So what happened when the humanoid robot walked into Rolex?
KOID showed up like it had an appointment – the humanoid robot made its way toward William Barthman’s Rolex boutique on Fifth Avenue, flanked by phones filming and jaws dropping.
No glitchy moves. No handlers. Just one robot and a clear objective: browse the showroom, maybe pick up a steel GMT.
Inside, sales staff – who usually cater to VIPs and collectors with multi-year waitlist histories – found themselves face-to-sensor with a customer like no other.
KOID scanned the displays, pointed at the watch it wanted, and extended a metal arm like it had somewhere to be.
The entire thing was orchestrated by KraneShares, part of a promo for their Global Humanoid and Embodied Intelligence ETF.
So yes, technically, it was a stunt. But it landed. Hard.
Some bystanders laughed, others recoiled.
One man yelled, “Satan, I rebuke you to hell,” which, if you’ve ever walked through NYC in July, felt very on-brand.
Another joked about paychecks: “How much is the robot getting paid?”
Online, the clip went viral.
The vibe was equal parts comedy, curiosity, and existential crisis.
Because underneath the memes and the metal limbs was a very real question: if AI can walk into Rolex today, what else can it cut the line for tomorrow?
KOID didn’t break the rules – it rewrote them
Rolex isn’t a walk-in-and-browse brand. There’s status, patience, and precision involved. You wait your turn. You prove you belong.
That’s why KOID’s unbothered strut through the boutique hit so hard. It skipped the rituals and went straight for the reward – a stainless-steel symbol of arrival.
Rolex represents legacy. KOID represents what’s next. One is built on decades of prestige; the other is built on code. Seeing them collide under boutique lighting wasn’t just eye-catching – it was jarring.
And that was the whole point.
As KraneShares later admitted: “Some people were terrified.”
The robot didn’t come to flex. It came to provoke. To make luxury feel slightly less human, and more programmable.
Because if a robot can now walk into a store designed for the elite and steal the moment, what does that say about the future of exclusivity?
KOID didn’t just try on a watch. It tried on status. And for a brief, unsettling moment, it wore it better than most.
See KOID in action below:
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Molly Davidson is a Junior Content Writer at Supercar Blondie. Based in Melbourne, she holds a double Bachelor’s degree in Arts/Law from Swinburne University and a Master’s of Writing and Publishing from RMIT. Molly has contributed to a range of magazines and journals, developing a strong interest in lifestyle and car news content. When she’s not writing, she’s spending quality time with her rescue English staffy, Boof.
