Overnight, Swatch dropped two new teaser posters. One shows the word “Royal”. The other shows “Pop”, with the P overlapping the O in a way that will look instantly familiar to any watch fan.
Yes, the font, with that spacing –it’s the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak logo. Near enough exactly.
This is the biggest clue yet as to what will be the ‘next MoonSwatch‘, and it’s hard to look at it as anything other than confirmation that a Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Oak collaboration is coming on the 16th of May.
If it happens, this could be even bigger than the Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch.
Now, these teasers don’t exist in a vacuum. Piecing together everything we’ve seen so far, a picture is forming, we could be looking at a watch powered by the Sistem51 movement – Swatch’s fully automated, in-house mechanical movement – styled around a pop art or comic book theme.
And those leather loops Swatch has been dangling on Instagram? They could be lanyards, designed to wear the watch as a pendant around your neck.
It sounds wild.
This not the first time AP and Swatch has been linked…
This isn’t the first time Swatch and AP have been linked. After the MoonSwatch launched, François-Henry Bennahmias, then CEO of Audemars Piguet, publicly praised the Omega x Swatch partnership as a brilliant idea, one that brings fresh energy to the Swiss watch industry and educates a younger generation about watchmaking icons.
Then, during the Swatch x Blancpain launch, Audemars Piguet’s official Instagram account waded into the conversation asking, “when do we launch?”
Add to that the close personal relationship between Bennahmias and Swatch CEO Nick Hayek, and the groundwork for something like this has been laid for a while.
There’s also a commercial logic to it. AP almost certainly watched the “CasioOak” G-Shock craze with interest. A collaboration like this means they profit further from one of the most iconic watch designs ever made.
Predictably, the new teasers have sent watch fans online into a frenzy. Some are calling it a stroke of genius, predicting queues that make the original MoonSwatch launch look orderly. Others are convinced AP would never partner with a brand that sells watches for under $100, arguing it would cheapen the Royal Oak’s mythology.
Personally, I’m in the optimistic camp.
We won’t have to wait long to find out. Swatch has confirmed the 16th of May as its launch date.
No price or availability details have been confirmed yet, but if the MoonSwatch is any guide, expect a global launch, limited initial stock, and queues around the block.
The MoonSwatch launched at US$260 / £240 – a Swatch x AP Royal Oak could reasonably sit a little higher, though still a fraction of the $24,000-plus real thing.
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