Mark Zuckerberg was seen sporting a rare Swiss watch worth nearly $900,000 as he announced the policy change across Meta social media platforms - Facebook and Instagram.

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Zuckerberg posted a video on Facebook on Tuesday (Jan 7) in which he promised to implement free speech over the Meta platforms after US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. He said that he would ditch its third-party fact-checkers to remove censorship.

Also read | 'Bending of knee to Trump', say critics as Meta CEO ditches fact-checking

Rare and expensive watch

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In the viral Facebook post, Meta Platforms Inc. CEO was spotted wearing a Greubel Forsey ‘Hand Made 1’ watch on his left wrist.

The watch is known to be extremely rare and expensive. According to Bloomberg, Greubel Forsey SA produces only two or three ‘Hand Made’ models a year, and the retail price is $895,500, exclusive of taxes. However, with just a few hundred timepieces produced per year, Greubel Forsey is not that well known among watch collectors and enthusiasts.

Also read | Meta to toss out factcheckers to reduce censorship, restore 'free expression'

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According to Greubel Forsey, 95 per cent of the components used to make the model worn by Zuckerberg were created by them. The watch is crafted by hand-operated tools and takes hundreds of hours to be fully assembled.

Over the last year, Zuckerberg has often been spotted wearing watches from high-end brands, including Patek Philippe and FP Journe, showcasing a diverse collection of complicated timepieces.

Also read | Elon Musk surpasses the net worth of Bezos and Zuckerberg combined

According to Forbes, Zuckerberg became the third wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $217.7 billion after surpassing Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle.

Meta policy overhaul

“It's time to get back to our roots around free expression. We're replacing fact checkers with Community Notes, simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes. Looking forward to this next chapter,” Zuckerberg wrote in the caption of the video shared on Facebook.

Also read | Meta denies taking down its AI-powered chatbots from Instagram and Facebook

The company will be altering the way posts, videos, and other content are moderated online. It will be getting rid of fact-checkers and will replace them with user-generated “Community notes”, which is similar to Elon Musk's X. 

(With inputs from agencies)