The watch-collecting community was set ablaze this past weekend, thanks to Swatch Group teasing an unexpected collaboration through a series of social posts and print advertisements.
By Monday, the news was official. Swatch will release a product collaboration with Audemars Piguet, one of the most respected high-end Swiss watch brands, on May 16. It’s an unexpected move for AP, a brand that makes fewer than 50,000 watches per year at an average price of $36,000, to work with one of the largest creators of mass-market, low-cost watches. Watch collectors, resellers, dealers and influencers are all speculating about what the move means for the direction of the watch industry, and how to get their hands on one of the watches themselves.
While little has been officially revealed about the collaboration, the name alone has already sparked speculation. The “Royal Pop” will likely draw inspiration from Audemars Piguet’s popular “Royal Oak” watch and combine it with the Swatch Pop, a series of pop-art-inspired watches from the 1980s, in which the watch case could be detached from its strap and clipped onto clothing or bags.
Swatch teased the collaboration with a print ad that ran during Watches & Wonders, showing a series of colored lanyards like those that came with the original Swatch Pop, with the text “The real wonders are coming in May.”
“It’s not something that many people were expecting,” said Robertino Altieri, CEO of the watch marketplace WatchGuys. “But now it’s creating the most hype ever.”
Swatch has previously collaborated with a higher-end brand, with the Swatch x Omega Moonswatch in 2022. It was a huge hit for both brands and led to multiple highly sought-after follow-up products. But the AP collab has a few key differences. Audemars Piguet is a much more prestigious and more expensive brand, with the average AP watch costing around $20,000 more than the average Omega watch. AP is also one of the so-called “Holy Trinity” of pinnacle Swiss watchmaking, along with Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. And, while Omega is a sister brand to Swatch, Audemars Piguet is an independent Swiss watch brand.
The hype for the collaboration has already reached watch blogs like Hodinkee; Reddit, where users are debating how early to show up at the Swatch store to try and secure a watch; and resellers, who want to make a profit on a watch that will likely sell for many multiples of its retail price.
Altieri said that the Moonswatch sold at retail for $250, but at its peak, it was selling for $2,500 on the resale market. He said he could see the Royal Pop selling for up to $5,000 on the resale market, despite a retail price of around $300. Boxes labeled Royal Pop have already been spotted in Swatch boutiques around the world.
The strategy for both brands is obvious at a time when the watch-collecting hobby is growing and more people than ever are gaining an interest in watches. Swatch benefits from the prestige of Audemars Piguet, while AP benefits from the scale of Swatch. The lower price also allows AP to attract new and entry-level watch collectors without diluting the main brand’s price. It’s a strategy that has already worked for Omega.
“Omega’s sales of the Speedmaster increased by 50% after the success of the Moonswatch,” Altieri said. “AP will probably get more customers, people who have never owned an AP watch before, because of this.”
High-low collaborations like this always run the risk of brand dilution. Some have already dubbed the Royal Pop the “Royal Broke” as the poor man’s alternative to the Royal Oak. But Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henry Bennahmias publicly praised the Swatch x Omega collaboration in 2022, saying that it didn’t dilute anything and was an excellent way to “educate the younger generation.”
That said, it’s unlikely that any of the other major Swiss brands will attempt something like this in the near future. Rolex already has a toe in the entry-level market through Tudor, its respected but lower-priced brand that Rolex uses to test-drive new features that then make it into Rolex watches and to lure in lower-income consumers.
“I don’t think any other brands are considering something like this,” Altieri said. “But if it’s successful, that might change.”
Altieri said there’s one wrinkle that could change the watch’s perceived value and success: the bracelet. The original Swatch Pop could be detached from the strap and worn on a lanyard like a pocket watch. The new Royal Pop could have the same mechanism, as shown in the print ad featuring colored lanyards. But Altieri said there’s little market for novelty pocket watches and that an integrated bracelet, as AP is known for, would likely drive much higher resale prices.
