Swatch is planning a collaboration with Audemars Piguet, expected to be one of the most significant and talked-about watch releases of the year. Swatch began teasing the tie-up last week with social media posts featuring the distinctive font associated with AP’s iconic Royal Oak model and the words ‘Royal’ and ‘Pop.’ That led to hordes of speculation online that the brand was preparing a collaboration with AP. And then, over the weekend, the two marques confirmed that indeed they would be releasing the new product on May 16.
Many Swatch boutiques, including its main store in Geneva, are displaying boxes or chests (presumably holding the watch models) promoting the new Royal Pop collab, in much the same way they did with the Omega and Blancpain collaborations ahead of the launches.
An Audemars Piguet X Swatch chest in the window at a Swatch boutique in Geneva.
So, what will the Audemars Piguet x Swatch watch be? Well, we simply don’t know at this point, but there are plenty of clues suggesting what it could be. The ‘Pop’ model line from Swatch has been around for decades and has served as a fashion-forward way to reimagine timekeeping and watches. First introduced around 1986, the Swatch ‘Pop’ watches could be removed from their straps and ‘popped’ into various accessory holders. These ranged from pocket watch holders, chains, and lanyards to refrigerator magnets and even a RECCO-branded accessory holder/transmitter for avalanche safety.
A current, Swatch ‘Pop’ pocket watch model with a quartz movement.
As part of the online campaign, before confirming it was a collaboration with AP, Swatch teased an animation of various colored lanyards floating up through the frame. That would suggest a potential pocket watch, a watch that could be worn as an accessory, or both. It would certainly make sense that this wouldn’t be a product as close to the recent Speedmaster or Blancpain collaborations, which were bioceramic colored versions of the Speedmaster Professional and Fifty Fathoms models.
An Audemars Piguet pocket watch ref. 5961 from the 1980s. Photo courtesy Audemars Piguet website.
We’re also being led to believe that this isn’t a quartz watch, as the teaser shows the wheels and balance spring of a mechanical movement. It could certainly be a variation on the Sistem51 used in the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms collab, but that isn’t confirmed either. A search of the Swatch website currently shows that all the ‘Pop’ models available are equipped with quartz movements. We also don’t know what the pricing will be or whether the collaboration with the high-end luxury brand from Le Brassus will result in a premium price above the MoonSwatch and Fifty Fathoms, though that is certainly a possibility.
Image courtesy Swatch.
A Swatch collaboration with Audemars Piguet shouldn’t be the biggest surprise. When the MoonSwatch launched in March 2022, then-Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henry Bennahmias was among those praising the collaboration amid criticism from some quarters that the bio-ceramic timepiece would dilute the brand power of the mighty Omega Speedmaster.
“Their collaboration is a great idea, which does not affect the integrity of Omega at all, contrary to what you may have heard. Why is that? Because it educates the younger generation about the icons of watchmaking,” Bennahmias told the Luxury Tribune in August, 2022.
In fact, Swatch said Speedmaster sales increased in the short term following the collaboration, and Swatch sold more than a million MoonSwatches in 2022 alone, with another million the next year, helping revive the fortunes of the Swatch brand.
An AP Royal Oak pocket watch ref. 5961. Image courtesy Audemars Piguet website
And another precedent, there is certainly a history of Royal Oak pocket watches. The reference 5961 was the first Royal Oak pocket watch, designed in the late 1970s and launched in the early 1980s, according to the brand’s website. Between 1980 and 1982, Audemars Piguet estimates it sold about 116 of these pocket watches, which were 44mm in diameter and featured the caliber 5020 movement. In the 1990s, they were succeeded by a new generation of Royal Oak pocket watches that were 48mm in diameter.
We’ll be following the developing story of this collaboration and hope to give more details as they become available, so stay tuned as we get closer to the international launch this coming Saturday.
