WATCHPRO
News, Trends and Analysis of The UK Watch Industry
It started in New Zealand and Australia and spread from east to west.
Launch after launch of the Royal Pop descending into farce, disappointment and, in several cases, violence.
Before daylight had reached the United States, reports were rolling in from Singapore, Dubai, Barcelona and London that the unveiling had become a risk to everybody’s safety, not least terrified teams in Swatch’s own stores.
Covering the roll out live on WatchPro from the UK this morning, it has been clear how woefully wrong the planning of this entire project has been.
Now, as America wakes up, it is at least able to get ahead of the issue and shut it down.
At around 10am, EST, Swatch USA pulled the plug.
In two posts on its Instagram feed, it announced 16 stores would not open in light of safety concerns.
“Today’s Bioceramic Royal Pop Collection launch saw extraordinarily high demand. Some of our stores had to be closed in accordance with our security staff and local authorities to ensure a safe environment for everyone,” it says, before, almost criminally hinting that crowds might come back for another crack at a later date.
“We remind you that the Royal Pop Collection is not a limited edition,” the company advertises.
Waiting until 10am, eastern, in itself failed to grasp the scale of the issue. Why not tell anybody in a queue at 8am to go home?
It may have been unnecessary with so many stories circulating on social media.
Dubai’s experience was typical.
“In view of safety considerations, we have decided not to proceed with the sale of the [Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop] at Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates and the event has been cancelled”.
So said the Instagram account of Swatch in the UAE, as the world’s biggest shopping mall was swamped with punters aiming to get their hand on the most hyped timepiece since the MoonSwatch.
Dubai was not alone.
Swatch stores across the world, faced with baying mobs in the hundreds, maybe thousands, and with allocations per location in the low tens, faced the choice of allowing the riot inside, or calling in security to turn back the tide.
Around the world, it was like watching New Year’s Eve firework displays go off hour by hour as stores opened, refused to open or opened then almost immediately closed as hundreds of customers fought to buy tiny quantities of the timepiece.
Audemars Piguet has issued no response to the crisis engulfing the worldwide events.
American Swatch stores, surrounding streets, and malls hosting Royal Pop launches, must now be rushing to prevent similar scenes.
At the time of writing, Swatch’s USA Instagram account has not made any comment.
There appear to have been contrasting levels of hysteria around the world.
Social media posts from Australia and New Zealand looked like launches were busy, but undramatic.
Swatch in Singapore opened, sold its stock of 40 pieces then shuttered, leaving hundreds of disappointed customers, who had camped for over 24 hours, furious.
People are being crushed in the chaos.
Authorities in New Delhi and Mumbai pulled the plug on Swatch Store openings this morning as a lack of crowd control threatened safety.
“We are not animals,” somebody in the crowd was heard to cry.
Swatch and AP’s home country dispatched police in Geneva, which allowed the launch to proceed.
Video shared from Milan shows scuffles breaking out between security guards and people in the crowd five minutes before it was due to open. It is not clear whether the Swatch store continued with the launch.
Barcelona headed off what authorities can now assume will be trouble by sending in riot police and refusing to open the Swatch store.
In London, hoards were kept outside Battersea shopping mall ahead of the launch, but they surged into this historic power station building at 10am in a scene resembling a zombie movie on fast-forward.
Further north in Liverpool, police were seen attempting to hold back an angry mob when they learned that the store was shut.
Social media managers for major watch stores (which do not sell Swatch, but do sell Swatch Group brands), are recognising the scale of this breaking story.
Harrison Brown, son of Chisholm Hunter owner Harry Brown, is a popular content creator for the 30-store family jeweller and has produced a roundup of the Swatch store closures.
Chicago’s store was shuttered just before it was due to open.
A post shared by Anthony Traina (@tony_traina)
Others closures were announced by Swatch on Instagram.
WatchPro has approached Swatch and Audemars Piguet for a reaction to today’s chaos, but has not yet received a reply.
Despite the madness, prices already appear to be softening on the secondary market.
Before the launch, advertisements for the Royal Pop, which appeared as soon as the product was unveiled on Wednesday, had “pre-sale” listings offering it for over £1500.
By last night, this reporter was receiving e-mails saying the listings I had been watching had dropped their prices by £500.
On Chrono24 this morning, the product is appearing “in stock” and with pictures of the timepieces in hand, for around £1,100.
The Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop is a collection of eight colourful fob watches made from sustainable bioceramic and powered by a Swiss-made mechanical Sistem51 movement.
Prices start from £335.
The automatic movement, which is visible through an exhibition case back, has 90 hours of power reserve and is made with a Nivachron balance spring.
There is a version with just hours and minutes hands and an alternative with a small seconds, which presents an opportunity for another pop of colour on the dial.
They are inspired by the Swatch Pop watches of the 1980s and promoted with Andy Warhol-style Pop Art, including AP CEO Ilaria Resta and Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek immortalised like a Marilyn Monroe portrait.
The watch head is a playful facsimile of the Gerald Genta-designed Royal Oak, complete with a Tapisserie textured dial and the famous octagonal bezel attached with eight colourful screws.
Importantly, the slots in the screw heads precisely align around the dial, just as they do in every Royal Oak.
There may be disappointment that the watch is not designed to be worn on a classic Royal Oak bracelet, which is an important part of its design language, but the watch head can be ‘popped’ out of its lanyard clip, so no doubt some enterprising engineer will come up with a solution, or Swatch will launch a wrist-worn piece in the future.
Shoppers will have a much bigger range of Swatch stores to camp outside than they could for the first MoonSwatch launch in 2022.
Five stores in London will have the products on sale from Saturday, in addition to eight more cities from Cardiff to Edinburgh.
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