Bag charms and repurposed Apple Watches set the bar for Meta's Muse Charm

In the TikTok videos TechCrunch describes, an Apple Watch that has come off the wrist gets snapped into a charm case and hung from a bag ^[8]. The owner already paid for the watch. TechCrunch says the habit is often a way to repurpose an older device, and that younger women often adopt these keychain watches as a fashion accessory first ^[8][9].

Here is what users are doing: putting a screen they already own somewhere it looks good. Here is what a hardware team can tell itself they are doing: showing demand for a new AI device worn the same way. Those are different purchases. The first costs a case, and the second asks for new hardware plus an AI agent the owner has to keep using for the money to make sense.

The reporting is clear about the buyer: Gen Z, and mostly young women ^[3][9]. Meta's pitch to that buyer is a character. The owner designs the avatar, so the agent becomes a reflection of them, in TechCrunch's description ^[1]. The trend TechCrunch documents is about objects people use to express personality, the way they use makeup and jewelry ^[10]. The coverage does not include a price or a daily task the AI performs for its owner. TechCrunch's own verdict on the design fit is that it "doesn't mean it will be a hit" ^[4].

An AI device sold as a charm is exposed to the charm cycle. Labubu took Pop Mart's revenue to $1.8 billion in 2024, seven times its 2019 level, and TechCrunch reports that demand for the Labubu itself has since faded ^[5]. Sevenfold growth puts Pop Mart's 2019 revenue near $257 million ^[13]. The analyst forecast for the entire global bag charm market is over $1 billion by 2030 ^[6]. One figure is a retailer's total revenue and the other a category forecast, so the match is loose, but Pop Mart's 2024 revenue is about 1.8 times the forecast floor ^[14].

A device designed as a reflection of its owner also asks for trust. TechCrunch wrote that "Meta has abused consumer trust over the years to such an extent that it may never fully recover," and pointed to the company's settlement with the FTC over charges that it deceived consumers ^[11][12].

I'd advise teams scoping AI hardware to treat the Charm as a test of whether novelty design keeps a device in use, and to hold off citing it as proof. The cost of waiting is time: if the Charm works, teams that waited start behind. Two questions sort the result. The first is whether the owner would clip it on with the battery dead. The second is whether the owner opens the agent in week six without a prompt.

Yes to both is a product. Carried and unused is an accessory, priced and forecast like one and subject to Labubu's fade. Used but left at home means the agent belongs in a phone app. No to both puts the Charm beside the Ai Pin and Rabbit ^[2]. The figures that place it are retention at week six and time-to-value, meaning how long after unboxing the agent does something the owner asked for.