Swatch’s upcoming Royal Pop collaboration with Audemars Piguet has become the most hyped horology release of the year even before launch, flooding social media with AI renders and sparking heated debate. Fans are split between excitement over an accessible take on the iconic Royal Oak and outrage that such a playful, budget-friendly version could dilute AP’s hard-won aura of exclusivity and status.
If at any point in your life, you have displayed an interest in horology, chances are your social media feed is filled with posts about Swatch’s upcoming collab with Audemars Piguet. It's not even unveiled yet, but people have opinions.
Some are impressed by the idea of Swatch being able to bring out a more budget-friendly AP. Others are appalled (“royal broke” is the name the internet decided to give). Others wish the Swatch Royal Pop, as it's called, could have been a wrist watch and not a pocket watch, as the trailers currently hint.
But wait, first, a little context for those who might have missed out. On May 16, Swatch is officially unveiling the Royal Pop, its long-rumoured collaboration with Audemars Piguet, and at this point, the most hyped collaboration in horology this year. The campaign first began during Watches and Wonders in April, when Swatch teased that “the real wonders are happening in May” on its website alongside the now-familiar “X Swatch” branding.
Over the following weeks, the brand dropped increasingly obvious hints through colourful teaser visuals, Sistem51 movement imagery, and posters carrying the words “Royal” and “Pop” in typography resembling the Royal Oak font. On May 8, Swatch officially confirmed the collaboration through Instagram, with most speculation suggesting the Royal Pop could be a pocket-watch-style accessory inspired by Swatch’s old Pop Swatch line rather than a traditional wristwatch.
To give you a sense of just how hyped the watch is, AI-generated renders of the supposed watch have completely flooded social media and horology websites. This doesn't happen that often, by the way.
Now, come on. The Royal Oak is not just another luxury watch. AP Royal Oak is practically the “I made it” purchase of the watch world, sitting in the same category as a Porsche 911. Designed by Gérald Genta in 1972, the Royal Oak essentially created the modern luxury sports watch category, and today many models cost upwards of $25,000 at retail, with certain versions reaching six figures on the resale market.
So for a section of collectors, the idea of Swatch making a playful, affordable version feels borderline offensive. Critics argue that AP risks diluting the exclusivity that made the Royal Oak desirable (that's not really the point of luxury, remember?).
But there’s another side to the argument. Many younger collectors who will realistically never spend luxury-car money on a watch see collaborations like this as the closest thing to participating in watch culture without being priced out of it completely. This exact argument surfaced during the MoonSwatch launch in 2022, when traditional collectors initially mocked the collaboration before queues outside Swatch boutiques wrapped around entire city blocks. Also, spoiler alert: people have already started setting up camps outside stores to get their hands on the Royal Pop.
Part of the frenzy surrounding the Royal Pop also comes from rumours that Audemars Piguet recently lost trademark disputes involving the Royal Oak design in the United States and Japan. People theorise that AP could be partnering with Swatch to get ahead of an expected wave of cheaper Royal Oak-style watches and homages. Now, AP has never confirmed this, the speculation gained traction because the Royal Oak is already one of the most copied watch designs in the industry, from Casio’s hugely popular “CasiOak” models to countless microbrand alternatives.
On Swatch’s side, this could be their golden chance to outdo the MoonSwatch. In 2022, Swatch’s collaboration with Omega turned the Speedmaster Moonwatch into an affordable Bioceramic release. The watch crossed over from horology into mainstream culture, attracting sneakerheads, fashion audiences and younger buyers who normally wouldn’t care about Swiss watches. We're looking at a sale of a million units in the first year alone here. Swatch has since attempted to recreate that success through later releases, including the Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms, but nothing has really hit the bullseye till now.
I've seen people talk about how much the Swatch time pieces look like kids watches (not that I disagree with them). Plus these watches aren't repairable. So the complaint comes up: why do major swiss companies even allow such collabs? Doesn't it bring down the value of their watch?
Swatch is not some avant garde watch brand mocking luxury watchmaking from the sidelines (and I'll be surprised if you didn't know this). All your big-name Swiss brands are a part of the Swatch group: Omega, Breguet, you name it. If anything, Swatch helped save Swiss watchmaking itself.
During the Quartz Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese quartz watches (like Seiko and Casio) nearly destroyed the traditional Swiss watch industry with how cheaper and more accurate they were.
This success did not just save one company. It helped stabilise the broader Swiss watch industry at a time when survival itself was uncertain. The Swatch Group eventually became the largest watch conglomerate in the world, housing brands like Omega, Blancpain, Breguet, Longines, Tissot and Hamilton.
Which is why collaborations like the MoonSwatch and Royal Pop don't fall in the cheap-copy discourse: Swatch is not borrowing legitimacy from luxury watchmaking. If anything, it gave your favourite watchmaker the breath of fresh air it needed to survive the 80s. And even with that, some of Swatch’s movements, like the Sistem51, is genuinely considered one of the more innovative ones out there.
And oh? That pop of colour that gives these watches a kid's watch look? That's a remainder from the decade that saw horology go through its most life-changing periods in history.