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The Collaborations: The Swatch x AP Royal Pop
Of course, it was only a matter of time and we all saw it coming.
Actually, that’s not true at all—literally no one predicted this, but here we are.
In their third of such of collaborations, where the Swatch Group teams up with a major manufacture to produce a fun little fusion, we get the Swatch x AP Royal Pop.
Yes, if you didn’t know already (although there’s little no chance of that) the conglomerate most famous for cheap and mainly plastic throwaway trinkets has banded together with one point of the Holy Trinity triangle; Audemars Piguet.
As you might imagine, there’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get into it.
I’m Sorry… What?!
No, you heard correctly; Swatch and AP have produced a series of watches together. The initial rumors started around the first week in May, when Swatch posted teaser campaigns centered around the words ‘Royal’ and ‘Pop. From there, Instagram accounts, online forums and Reddit threads all raced to join the dots to the AP Royal Oak. Before long, AI-created renders of bioceramic Royal Oak wristwatches began circulating.
Then, on the 8th May, a second wave of official teasers dropped, with Swatch directly tagging AP, which removed any doubt or speculation.
The news, it is fair to say, was received warmly. If you cast your mind back to around this time in 2022, you will doubtless remember the total and utter bedlam which greeted the first of these collaborations—the Swatch x Omega MoonSwatch models. You might recall the lines around the block outside stores, the mini riots, the police presence, the insane premiums foisted on these massively in-demand pieces on the secondary market. And that was for an Omega.
What would the reaction be like for a mashup with one of horology’s haute-iest brands?
Big
Yup. The reception to the Swatch x AP Royal Pop has been pretty much on a par with that of the MoonSwatch.
Some eager would-be customers camped out for five days in front of a number of boutiques. In New York, cops had to use pepper spray to disperse unruly mobs. The Parisian gendarmes preferred tear gas. In Mumbai, some store workers were too scared to open at all. And this all for something which costs $400, is not a limited edition and is not even a wristwatch.
Fooling everyone, especially those who had put their stock in those ChatGPT mockups, the AP Royal Pop is actually a series of eight multicolored bioceramic pocket watches.
And why were people in such a tizz to get their hands on one? Well, just like previous Swatch matchups, there was big money to be made. It is believed the vast majority of the crowds queuing up for a Pop were professional flippers. Or at least, those paid to stand in line by said flippers. Early reports showed one patron bought his watch for $432 and immediately sold it for $3,000. 24-hours later, once the news had broken that this was not going to be a limited edition after all, the asking price for the same model went down to about $900 on the preowned market.
What Are They Buying?
There is no doubting who is responsible for the Royal Pop. Many of the Royal Oak’s emblematic styling details are present. Most obviously, the shape is the famous, Genta-penned octagon, together with the eight exposed screws around the bezel. Additionally, the winding crown is itself a hexagon as it is on the full-bodied RO. Then there’s the dial, complete with the trademark Petite Tapisserie finishing. Handset and hour markers are identical too.
The one-off collection comes in eight different colorways. Otto Rosso (pink and red), Huit Blanc (white with multicolored screws and indexes), Green Eight, Blaue Acht (sky blue and lime green), Lan Ba (blue and light blue), OTG Roz (pink, yellow and teal), Ocho Negro (black and white) and Orenji Hachi (navy blue with orange detailing).
The linguists among you will have noted each one has a name containing the word ‘eight’ in there, taken from French, English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, German and Romansh.
Of the eight, six are a style of pocket watch known as Lépine, which places the winding crown at the 12 o’clock, while the other two (the Lan Ba and the OTG Roz) are what’s called Savonnette, which has the crown at the 3. Those also include a small seconds sub dial as well, which the Lépines don’t have.
All models are 40mm without the little cage they clip into, and just over 44mm once installed. That cage is attached to a calfskin leather lanyard with contrast stitching, although straight out of the box you only get the Small one measuring just 18cm long. That precludes anyone from wearing the Pop around their necks as you might immediately think to do with a lanyard. However, the Medium (32cm) and Large (42cm) straps will be available to buy on the Swatch website soon.
And, impressively, this is no quartz disposable. Powering all the models is Swatch’s own SISTEM51 caliber, the first mechanical movement assembled entirely by robots. Here it has been rejigged to be manually wound (these are pocket watches after all, rendering winding rotors redundant) and they have a formidable 90-hour reserve. What’s more, you can see it in action through a display case back where you will notice the clever little power reserve indicator. It even has the anti-magnetic Nivachron balance spring.
What you don’t get, however, (and it’s worth noting) is any way to service said movement. All the watches are sealed units so when the caliber malfunctions (which it will eventually; all mechanical movements do) what you are left with is a $400 ornament on a string.
So, that’s the watches in a nutshell. While they may be cheap, there is no lack of quality. But the big question in some fans’ minds is; why?
The Big Question
There have been three Swatch collabs so far and all of them have been controversial to some eyes.
Purists have thrown around terms like ‘diluted brand equity’ for both the Omega MoonSwatch and the Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection, but never as loudly as they have for this latest venture.
It is understandable to a degree. Not only is Audemars Piguet the first non-Swatch brand to get the combo treatment, it is also one of the industry’s true greats—a grand old statesman of fine watchmaking. AP themselves call the Royal Pop ‘a disruptive collaboration that fuses joyful boldness and positive provocation with the art of haute horlogerie.’
But what has been behind the decision? Well, it might actually be a slice of genius.
AP has a couple of problems with the Royal Oak. The first is that that one product line makes up about 90% of its revenue. And that’s for a $2.6B company. Any business putting that many eggs in one basket is simply asking for trouble; trouble which may already be on the way. The preowned market for APs overall is collapsing as we speak, and the Royal Oak is cooling off fast.
Coupled with that, AP recently lost two legal battles, one in Japan and the other in the U.S., to trademark the iconic shape of the Royal Oak. Unfortunately for them, they have been the victim of their own success. The shape is too recognized now to reasonably be able to block others from using it—it would be like Rolex trying to trademark the attributes of the Submariner. As a result, there are a million clones of the Royal Oak out there, almost to the point of genericide. (That’s when something becomes so well-known it becomes a generic term for that product. Think Google or Hoover).
But all those cheap Royal Oak replicas hurt the image, far more than a Swatch collaboration does. Therefore, launching the Royal Pop, a genuine Audemars Piguet but at a highly affordable price, immediately devalues the emulators. Why have the wannabe when you can have the real thing?
Furthermore, making the decision to release it as a pocket watch was inspired. No one is going to confuse it with a genuine Royal Oak, so its reputation remains intact.
Plus, it does something for the long term. The Swatch model is clearly aimed at a younger audience. And the thing about young people these days, on the whole, is that they’re broke. However, that doesn’t mean they will always be. The Pop could well be their first introduction to the brand and is likely to awaken an aspiration in them. In a few years, when they have climbed whatever corporate ladder they are currently on the bottom rung of, they will be looking to upgrade to the real thing.
It could also reinvigorate interest in the secondary market.
Of course, there have been plenty of naysayers. Read any of the comment sections across social media platforms and you will see the watches described variously as ‘looking like an AirTag’, or ‘like something you used to get in a Happy Meal’, or, my personal favorite, mean-spirited and elitist as it may be, ‘the Royal Broke.’
But, that aside, and even remembering that AP is going to be donating 100% of its Swatch profits to charity, it is funny to think that in an industry very much based around five, six or even seven-figure sums routinely being paid out for its products, the biggest news of the year could well be a $400 pocket watch.
If you were in the market for one, and were at all interested in my worthless advice, it would be to not buy one preowned. Stock at official stores will be replenished eventually, meaning you can easily buy one at retail.
Featured Photo: Mixed art by Oriol Mendivil for BKT Archive.
