Pocket Watches Are Back, Baby: The Swatch Collabs Causing Riots
The Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop Collection was one of the most hotly anticipated watch collaborations in years.
It made headlines around the world as normally unassuming watch stores suddenly looked like Apple stores circa 2007, with people camping outside for days for a chance to buy one of the pocket watches. In Paris, a 300-strong crowd required police intervention and tear gas. I think that is just a regular day in Paris now, to be honest. In Milan, a fight broke out outside a Swatch store. A mall near The Hague required a police callout because of the crowds. As is tradition, the Dutch gave up without a fight when one store opted out entirely and remained closed. Stores in Amsterdam and Utrecht also decided that was the prudent move.
At the time of writing, the Swatch website still carried this warning: “To ensure the safety of both our customers and our staff in Swatch stores, we kindly ask you not to rush to our stores in large numbers to acquire this product. The Royal Pop Collection will remain available for several months. In some countries/regions, queues of more than 50 people cannot be accepted, and sales may need to be paused.”
It is rare to see this kind of rush for watches, but most timepieces are aimed at wealthier buyers, so it makes sense that the more modestly priced Royal Pop is within reach of ordinary punters. Add collectability, a collaboration with a prestigious name and launch-day scarcity, and you have the perfect storm for a watch priced at only a few hundred dollars to triple in value on the secondary market. That feeds the hype cycle, generates headlines and fuels FOMO, making every subsequent collaboration bigger than the last.
It is generally agreed that the best collaboration so far is still the Bioceramic MoonSwatch Collection created by Swatch and Omega. It simply looks good. Interestingly, these collaborations, which may look to snobs like a dilution of the high-end brand, are acting as a gateway for younger buyers to start purchasing Omega Moonwatches.
We are not leaving the age of the smartphone any time soon, so attracting younger clientele to the joys of watch ownership is imperative and requires lateral thinking — something Swatch seems to be doing in spades.