GoKawiilAt 9 am, as stores opened, London’s Carnaby Street location lasted half an hour before police were called. In New York, fights broke out amid rumors of a stabbing in the line. At locations around the world, police had to assist staff as the vast majority of customers left empty-handed as most of the shops had fewer than 200 watches available. Deals were done within queues as scalpers flipped watches for profit. Within minutes of the first sales, the plastic watches were hitting eBay for thousands of dollars.
This is not what a description of what happened during Saturday's Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop launch, this is an account of the 2022 MoonSwatch launch. But a carbon copy of this chaos and mayhem ensued as Swatch stores opened worldwide on May 16 to sell their extremely limited numbers of Royal Pop pocket watches.
Responding to widespread criticism of how Swatch handled the 2022 MoonSwatch launch, Nick Hayek Jr., chief executive of Swatch Group, told WIRED at the time: “We knew for sure this would be a success, because the product is beautiful, provocative, high quality, and the price is fantastic... But what happened … I think nobody in the world could have expected that. It was really crazy.”
Hayek's defence was essentially that Swatch could not be held accountable for disturbances so severe some stores were forced to shut for 10 days to let the pandemonium play out, simply because the group could never have predicted the ferocious public reaction to an affordable version of an iconic luxury timepiece coming on sale. No such excuse can be offered this time for the calamitous Royal Pop launch that took place this weekend.
Chaos Foreshadowed
Even before the first stores opened in Singapore on Saturday, 12 hours ahead of New York, the clear pattern of what was to follow was established. The VivoCity branch was shuttered ahead of the much-anticipated launch, with Swatch issuing a statement that it was "due to the overwhelming crowd” and that this decision was taken with local authorities to ensure the health and safety of staff and customers.
The Swatch X AP Royal Pop that's caused such a furore at launch, just like the MoonSwatch did in 2022. Courtesy of Swatch
Then it was Dubai. “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”, a statement said. Authorities in New Delhi and Mumbai closed Swatch Store openings citing a lack of crowd control threatening safety. “We are not animals,” crowd members were caught shouting on Instagram clips.