Yesterday, May 16, Swatch launched the Royal Pop Collection, a collaboration with Audemars Piguet that mashes up the Royal Oak silhouette with Swatch’s 1980s POP aesthetic. It retails for $400 USD. It is not a limited edition. And the world completely lost its mind over it.
In Milan, police were called to stop altercations in progress. In London’s Battersea Power Station, the atmosphere was described as “hostile with barging and heckling,” with multiple UK stores including Westfield London and Glasgow remaining shuttered at the 9am launch time, managers using loudspeakers to tell crowds the stores simply could not safely open.
Curated news for men,
delivered to your inbox.
Join the DMARGE newsletter — Be the first to receive the latest news and exclusive stories on style, travel, luxury, cars, and watches. Straight to your inbox.
RELATED: The Royal Pop Collab Is The Labubu Zesty Men Everywhere Were Waiting For
In France, hundreds of people who had queued through the night rushed stores, causing physical crushes that forced shops across the country to close under police guidance. In Miami’s Aventura mall, over 3,000 people flooded the building, triggering a stampede.
In suburban Detroit, two people were cited for trespassing. In King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, people broke down doors trying to get inside before the mall opened. One person was arrested. In India, launch events in Mumbai and New Delhi were formally cancelled after crowds were described as “animalistic.” In Dubai, Swatch pulled the plug on sales at both the Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates entirely.
Andrew McUtchen, founder of Time+Tide, posted his own video response to the mayhem, making clear he sees this as genuinely damaging for the watch industry. His point is worth sitting with.
RELATED: Swatch x AP Royal Pop Is Already Being Flipped Before It Even Drops
The people losing their minds at Swatch store fronts, sleeping on pavement, fighting strangers, breaking down mall doors, are largely people who couldn’t walk into an Audemars Piguet boutique and buy a Royal Oak. They’re not watch enthusiasts. They’re hype chasers who’ve latched onto a logo they recognise from a rap lyric, treating a $400 plastic pocket watch like it’s a golden ticket.
Here’s the part that makes it worse. Swatch itself had to remind everyone that the Royal Pop Collection is not rare. “We remind you that the Royal Pop Collection is not a limited edition,” the company said. They pointed to the MoonSwatch, their Omega collab from 2022, which caused identical scenes and is now sitting available on their website for anyone who wants one.
Neither Audemars Piguet nor Swatch’s central corporate channels issued any formal statement acknowledging the chaos, leaving regional store managers and local police to manage the fallout alone.
People got arrested. For a $400 bioceramic pocket watch on a keychain. That isn’t even limited. That will be restocked. This just shows the socio-economic behaviour of people who buy $400 watches.
I doubt this is what AP had in mind when they collaborated with Swatch.
