Swatch continues their collaborative journey through the Swiss watch industry with their most unexpected partner to date: Audemars Piguet. This marks the first foray outside of the SWATCH Group, and represents a major jump into one of the three so-called ‘holy trinity’ of watch brands. Whatever your feelings on that term may be, this is a notable milestone for collaborations that rely sheerly on the power of exclusivity by restricted access through selected brick and mortar Swatch retail locations. It is not a limited edition, and the MSRP is under $500. Oh, and it’s also not a wrist watch.
Before going any further, I think it’s important to set aside any cynicism around projects like this, and recognize the opportunity for a brand like Audemars Piguet to explore new routes for creative expression that are within reach of an audience that will likely be forever priced out of their mainline offerings. These are supposed to be fun in a way things used to be. And to pre-empt any reactions to this being a cash-grab, note that Audemars Piguet is sending 100% of its proceeds from this to “fund a dedicated initiative supporting the preservation and transmission of watchmaking savoir-faire, with a focus on rare skills and the next generation of horological talent.”
With that out of the way, let’s explore the Royal Pop. This is a 40mm x 8.4mm Bioceramic pocketwatch housing a new SISTEM 51 manually wound movement providing 90 hours of reserve. There are eight distinct colorways being introduced, and each comes with a color-matching clip in housing which measures 44.2mm x 53.2mm, and attaches to a calfskin lanyard.
A familiar octagonal bezel and “Petite Tapisserie” dial draw a clear line to the Royal Oak watch design that dates to 1972 from Gerald Genta. The hands and hour markers follow suit here. While none place the AP logo at six o’clock, the AP logo is indeed present alongside the Swatch logo. Six of the designs are Lépine style, with the crown at 12 o’clock where you’d expect to find it on a pocketwatch, while the remaining two go for a sidewinder style, or Savonette in nature (crown at three o’clock), and these designs welcome a subsidiary seconds at six o’clock.
As the watch itself can be worn within the clip, or simply slipped into a pocket, this design leaves plenty of room for future accoutrement, and perhaps even a wrist bound band that would welcome the head. The Lépine cases can be oriented to display on a desk and the watch itself seems easy enough to swap out on the fly, and I imagine mixing and matching will be popular with these.
Each of the designs brings a vibrant color scheme to life, save for one, which is pure black and white in a surprisingly demure configuration. The eight bezel screws are done in a contrasting nature and a contrasting stitch in the lanyard carries the theme over. In total, these are all very fun designs, and while they do reference the Royal Oak, as well as previously produced mechanical pocketwatches from Audemars Piguet, they feel like their own distinct thing.
Will these tarnish the reputation of the Royal Oak name? In my view, they will not. In fact, I’d argue that watches like the “Black Panther” feel more disconnected from the core thesis of the Royal Oak than these do. Sure, they aren’t what you might call traditional ‘luxury’ but they will play the exclusivity game, and they’ve managed to drum up an unimaginable amount of hype and will undoubtedly do a better job of connecting with a new generation of enthusiasts than any high-end conceptual release is capable of (as cool as some of those may be).
Pricing is set at $400 for the Lépine variations, while the pair of Savonette examples are priced at $420. The Royal Pop will be available exclusively through select Swatch stores, with one watch available per customer, per store. Swatch / Audemars Piguet
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