The $400 Swatch and Audemars Piguet pocket watch collaboration drew massive crowds & police response
What was supposed to be an exciting product launch turned into a crowd control crisis. Swatch released its highly anticipated Royal Pop collection in partnership with Audemars Piguet on Saturday, May 16, and the response was overwhelming in the worst possible way. Nineteen Swatch stores across the United States closed on release day due to public safety concerns, and similar closures were reported at locations around the world as the company scrambled to manage crowds that had grown far beyond what its stores could safely accommodate.
What the Royal Pop collection is
The Royal Pop is a line of eight pocket watches designed as a mashup between Audemars Piguet’s iconic Royal Oak and Swatch’s colorful POP line from the 1980s. Six models carry a price tag of around $400, while two versions are priced slightly higher at $420. For context, a traditional Audemars Piguet Royal Oak typically starts at around $30,000, making the Swatch collaboration an unusually accessible entry point into one of watchmaking’s most recognizable designs.
The watches are available exclusively at Swatch retail locations, a deliberate choice that drove foot traffic to stores but also concentrated the chaos in a way that proved difficult to manage. The Royal Pop comes in two configurations, a Lepine style with the crown at 12 o’clock and a Savonnette style with the crown at 3 o’clock, across a range of colorways. Accessory companies have already announced plans to offer straps that would allow the pocket watches to be worn on the wrist, expanding their appeal beyond traditional pocket watch collectors.
How the release unfolded
Hype around the Royal Pop had been building since The watch company and Audemars Piguet unveiled the collaboration on Tuesday, May 13. By the time Saturday arrived, dedicated fans had already been camped outside some locations for days. At the Times Square Swatch store in New York City, people began arriving in the early hours of the morning, and the situation escalated quickly once stores began processing sales.
At a Swatch location inside Roosevelt Field mall in Long Island, police officers arrived around 1:40 a.m. after store employees called for assistance. Several people were arrested at that location. A bystander who captured footage of the scene described confusion over where people were supposed to line up as a significant contributor to the disorder, with the situation coming to a head around 6 a.m. when purchasing began and those at the back of the crowd began pushing toward the front. The scene was described as resembling a wave, with police officers making physical contact with attendees as the pressure mounted. The bystander left around 8 a.m. without a watch.
In Orlando, crowds gathered outside the Swatch store at the Mall at Millenia, where police officers could be heard on video instructing people to step back. One collector arrived at 5 a.m. and stayed until 6 p.m. without managing to buy anything. Another drove from Daytona Beach and arrived at 3 a.m., also leaving empty-handed. The Mall at Millenia later announced on social media that the Swatch location would remain closed through the weekend. Orlando police have not released information about any incidents connected to the crowds at that location.
Swatch’s response
The company acknowledged the disruptions and urged customers not to rush to stores, emphasizing that the Royal Pop collection would remain available for several months. The company noted that in some countries, queues exceeding 50 people cannot be safely accommodated and that sales may need to be paused when crowds reach that level. Some stores were closed in coordination with security staff and local authorities to ensure a safe environment for everyone involved.
Representatives for the Mall at Millenia had not announced a reopening date as of Saturday evening. Those who did manage to purchase a watch wasted little time listing them online, with some Royal Pop models already appearing on eBay for as much as $15,000, more than 37 times the retail price.
Why this collaboration drew such intensity
The Royal Pop follows a pattern established by Swatch’s earlier collaboration with Omega, which produced the MoonSwatch in 2022. That release caused similarly frenzied scenes at stores worldwide and went on to sell more than one million units in under a year. The MoonSwatch is widely credited with drawing a new generation of buyers into the watch collecting hobby, bridging the gap between the Apple Watch market and traditional mechanical timepieces.
The Royal Pop represented something slightly different, however. It marked the first Swatch collaboration with a brand outside the Swatch Group’s own portfolio, adding a layer of novelty that amplified the anticipation. Watch industry observers noted that unlike the MoonSwatch, none of the eight Royal Pop models closely resembles the original Royal Oak design, a departure that generated debate among collectors in the days before the release but did nothing to dampen the crowds that showed up on launch day.