The release of a special watch collection Swatch created in collaboration with the luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet, named 'Royal Pop', led to kilometer-long queues and chaotic scenes this weekend in several cities across Europe, Asia, and also in New York. The price of these watches ranges between 385 and 400 euros, while the original watch it is inspired by costs 20,000 euros.
In Barcelona, the massive presence of buyers at the doors of the Swatch store prevented the opening of the establishment located on Passeig de Gràcia and forced police intervention to prevent incidents. Sources from the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona reported that for days, dozens of people queued, even at night, outside the store to get one of these watches. Faced with the hundreds of people wanting to enter the store, the store managers chose not to open the doors.
At the Goya street store in Madrid, huge queues also formed to get hold of these new watches, highly coveted by resellers, as in that market, they are estimated to be able to quadruple their price.
Outside the Swatch store in Times Square, New York, "people were pushing and jostling" to enter the store when it opened, as recounted by John McIntosh, a 44-year-old New Yorker who had been queuing since Wednesday.
In France, long lines of hundreds of people formed overnight in numerous cities, and there were tense moments with security teams in some stores. According to a French police source, about 300 people who arrived before the opening of a Swatch store in a shopping center in the Paris region were dispersed by officers using tear gas. Finally, and faced with the huge influx that could lead to a security problem, the Swatch stores in Lyon, Deauville, Rennes, Lille, Saint Tropez, and Montpellier remained closed.
In Italy, there were also issues in Milan, where a fight broke out in front of a Swatch store at the opening, as shown in images circulated by the media.
For many, the effort is worth it thanks to the resale market. Taha, a 19-year-old who managed to buy one of the watches at the Swatch store in Verona (Italy), explains candidly: "An authentic Audemars Piguet is unattainable. This one costs 400 euros, and on platforms like StockX, you can sell it a minute later for 1,200. In the end, it's just a dial with a strap, but the collector's impact is huge." On the other hand, Sergio, 30, openly admits the speculative motivation: "There's a lot of hype. I'm here just to resell it."
Others, however, are driven by the fascination of rarity. Giovanni, 22, who came from Brescia, sums it up: "It's an absolute novelty. Enthusiasts want to be there from the beginning, especially because no one knows how many actual units there will be or if production will continue."
In the United Kingdom, for "safety" reasons for customers and employees, the Swiss group closed its stores in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, and Cardiff for the entire day.
In Tokyo, in the heart of the luxury district of Ginza, over 200 people queued on Friday to get one of the watches. On the main street of Ginza, where the entrance to the Swatch store is located, dozens of people had been occupying the sidewalk since Thursday night, in a queue that kept growing block by block as the hours passed.
Two Japanese students who spent the night on the street to keep their place in the queue initially said they were interested because it is a 'premium' model. But they eventually admitted they want to buy it "before the Chinese resell them and the price goes up."
The worldwide release of this collection has also generated queues at multiple Swiss Swatch stores, such as those in Geneva, Singapore, or London.
With a design inspired by the iconic Royal Oak model from Audemars Piguet, launched in 1972, and the aesthetic of Swatch's 80s Pop collection, the collaboration includes eight models with colors ranging from pink to green, with a leather strap.