Up Close With the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Collab That No One Saw Coming (EXCLUSIVE)
The recent news of Audemars Piguet teaming up with Swatch caught the digital world entirely off guard, with every man and his dog popping off. It followed me offline, too — from a casual “have you heard the news?” at my local bodega to a watch-agnostic friend calling to ask, “Is this like Zara partnering with Chanel?” — confirmation, if it were needed, that this pairing isn’t launching quietly.
The teasers have been coming in fast and cryptic, with mystery-sealed tins quietly landing in Swatch store windows across the globe, unopened. Well, allow us to open it for you: meet the Royal Pop, a one-off collaboration between the two Swiss stalwarts, who unveil not just a single watch, but eight iterations. And insider tip: it’s one watch per day, per person, and in-store only from May 16 — ample time to get the global group chat logistics underway.
But why so regal, and what’s popping where? “Royal Pop” is a portmanteau of Audemars Piguet’s defining Royal Oak — a renowned octagonal steel sports watch designed by horological GOAT Gérald Genta — and Swatch’s very own POP Swatch from the 1980s, a modular design that popped off the wrist and transformed into an accessory (brooch, ring, charm, or otherwise) with a signature clicking sound. Courtesy of the plastic-purveyor of our childhood timekeeping, you can now get hands-on with this nostalgia-infused AP at a far more approachable price tag. For just under $450, it’s a chance to kickstart (or expand) your collection with a true hallmark name.
Except, the plot thickens: you won’t be fastening this one to your arm. Debuting a “pocket watch format,” as it's formally dubbed by both parties, it comes with the option to purchase three lanyard variations or a removable stand that cosplays as a desk clock. Hang it on a wall, your ears, your car keys, shoelaces, belt loop, or bag – honestly, if it has the structural integrity to hold a charm, it’s fair game.
Freed from the wrist and drenched in rainbow hues — some pushing into full three-tone territory — each model is crafted from Swatch’s Swiss-made Bioceramic, a blend of ceramic powder and bio-sourced plastic. Reworking Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak (one of the most seminal sports watches in modern watchmaking) through the lens of peak Pop Art excess, the collaboration taps into a moment when mass culture became art itself. The result? The color palette of course, but moreover the movement (aka engine) is decorated with the era's insignia of half tone dots and primary colors, visible through a sapphire crystal caseback.
You can take your pick: six Lépine-style models that keep things clean with the crown at 12 o’clock and stripped-back hour-and-minute hands only ($400), or two Savonette-style instead ($420), where the crown shifts to 3 o’clock and a small seconds dial spins away at 6 — time viewed either horizontally or vertically, as it were. No matter your ticker, you’ll find an homage to AP’s signature grid-like dial pattern and octagonal bezel echoed in each iteration.
So how does one of the most coveted watch brands end up in front of the masses? Well, that’s precisely why the collab embraces Pop Art sensibility: It’s the idea of art being stripped of its exclusivity and made genuinely accessible that sits at the core, shares Swatch’s CEO, Nick Hayek Jr. “Take Warhol’s example of Coca Cola, where either a president drinks it, or a worker. For both, it's the same Coca Cola. You don't exclude people, you include people.”
For Swatch, the gateway watch for so many of us, the collaboration makes perfect sense. But it’s the handshake with Audemars Piguet, a proprietor of high-end watches, that initially had many of us convinced it was fake news. “I truly believe the watch industry needs fuel and nourishment,” adds Audemars Piguet’s CEO, Ilaria Resta. “And you nourish it with cultural relevance. We are so small as an industry, and the biggest opportunity for us is to grow. One of the most important ways to do that is to create interest in watchmaking from the younger generation who might, one day, want to work in the industry.”
Because the future of watchmaking is in the hands of the children of tomorrow, adds Resta. “This collaboration targets Gen Alpha, because the first apprentices we take at Audemars Piguet are 16 years old. My number one priority is not to sell Audemars Piguet to this demographic, but to sell the dream of watchmaking. Once you see mechanical watchmaking and understand it, it’s impossible not to connect because you see the magic. There’s soul in it. This collaboration exists to explain what a mechanical watch is. Nobody will otherwise. But it needs to be told in a way that people understand.”
In pursuit of passing on the torch, Audemars Piguet will use 100% of its proceeds to fund a dedicated initiative to support the transmission and safeguarding of watchmaking skills for the next generation. “This isn’t a financial return for us,” she continues. “It’s a return for the industry and funding the skills that are disappearing. I believe that culturally, we are in a moment of extreme stress and I don’t want watchmaking to be a casualty of that.”
Let’s be frank: flippers will flip (case in point: Swatch’s prior collab with Omega for the MoonSwatch), and purists will grumble about AP’s dilution — but it’s less about those with a stack of RO’s already up the arm, and more about the outsiders looking in, yet to even see a mechanical watch in the flesh. “We will remain Audemars Piguet,” concludes Resta. “We will continue to craft around 50,000 watches a year, finishing high-end complications by hand, but this doesn’t mean we need to exclude others. This launch needed to be inclusive while also continuing our strategy of radical openness.”
And we’re radically waiting for the store doors to open soon. We’re already in line for the full octet – see you in the queue.
The Audemars Piguet x Swatch collab will be available to purchase across Swatch stores around the world from 16th May. While it runs as a one-off collaboration, presently, it will not be limited in timeframe.
