Swiss group Swatch Claims Extraordinary Demand for Audemars Piguet Collaboration
Swiss group Swatch claims to have recorded an “exceptional” demand for its new collaboration with the independent watchmaker Audemars Piguet. The launch of the “Royal Pop” collection on Saturday, May 16, led to significant crowds in several countries, causing some stores to temporarily close.
According to Swiss watchmaker Swatch, incidents were reported in about twenty stores out of the 220 global sales points affected by the launch of the year’s collaboration: the partnership between Swatch and one of the oldest luxury watch manufacturers in the world, Audemars Piguet.
The reason? Particularly long queues and sometimes insufficient security measures in some shopping centers.
“On the launch day, there were problems […], as the queues of interested people were extremely long and the organization made by some shopping centers was not sufficient to contain this rush,” said the Swiss group.
Even before the opening on Saturday, May 16, hundreds of enthusiasts and resellers queued, sometimes for several days, outside certain Swatch stores.
In several cities, the crowd quickly escalated, requiring police interventions and immediate store closures.
“The reaction to the Royal Pop collection worldwide is phenomenal and demand is immensely high,” added the watch group, comparing the launch of this model with Audemars Piguet to the MoonSwatch model in 2022, in partnership with Omega.
In Chesnay-Rocquencourt, near Paris, close to 300 people gathered in front of the Swatch store at the Westfield Parly 2 shopping center were dispersed by law enforcement using tear gas, and in Lille, several people claimed to have been victims of physical violence in the queue and now wish to file complaints.
Incidents were also reported in Milan, where an altercation erupted outside a store, as well as in Thailand and the United States, where crowd movements were observed. Only Japan was spared.
“As with the MoonSwatch, things somewhat ‘normalized’ after the launch day,” clarified the Swiss group, “especially after we communicated again that the Royal Pop collection would be available for several months.”
This is also a way for the brand to limit pressure around the first days of commercialization.
Previous Successful Collaborations
Indeed, in 2022, Swatch launched a collaboration with Omega, one of the prestigious brands in the group. Given its success, Swatch renewed the experience in 2023 by creating a watch with Blancpain, another brand in the group known for its dive watches.
However, the collaboration with Audemars Piguet marks a significant evolution: this time it is a partnership with an independent brand, considered one of the most prestigious watchmaking houses in Switzerland.
It is worth noting that Swatch Group, which owns 16 watch brands, achieved a turnover of 6.28 billion Swiss francs in 2025, approximately 6.86 billion euros. The group does not detail the commercial performances of each of its brands. However, according to a note published last week by analyst Gian Marco Werro of the Zurich Cantonal Bank, it is estimated that the Moonswatch generated an additional turnover of around 250 million francs in 2022 and 450 million francs in 2023, including the model created with Blancpain.
