Swatch and Audemars Piguet launch $400 Royal Pop pocket watch
The new collection features eight colourful designs inspired by the 1980s Pop watches and the Royal Oak, utilising a modified manual-wind movement.
Swatch has announced a new timepiece collection created in partnership with independent Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet. The Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop collection follows a series of cryptic advertising campaigns and social media teasers that generated significant speculation among collectors prior to the official reveal.
Inspired by Swatch’s iconic Pop watches from the 1980s and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak timepieces, which debuted in 1972, the collection comprises eight pocket watches. Each model features a distinctive octagonal case and vibrant colourways. The Royal Oak design is historically associated with high price points, with models typically ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on specifications.
The Royal Pop pocket watches are priced significantly lower, with the Lépine version, featuring a crown at the 12 o’clock position, retailing at $400. The alternate Savonnette style, with the crown at three o’clock, is priced at $420. Both versions are housed in waterproof Bioceramic cases with scratch-resistant sapphire glass and include a calfskin leather lanyard, with additional accessories such as a desk clock holder available separately.
Powering the timepieces is a variant of Swatch’s Sistem51 movement, developed over a decade ago to enable mass production on an automated assembly line. The version used in the Royal Pop skips the original self-winding functionality in favour of a manual-wind design with a 90-hour power reserve. This marks a departure from Swatch’s previous luxury collaborations, including the MoonSwatch with Omega and the Scuba Fifty Fathoms with Blancpain, both of which are part of the Swatch Group.
Audemars Piguet remains an independent entity controlled by the descendants of founders Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet. To manage anticipated demand, Swatch is limiting sales to one unit per person per store per day. The collection becomes available on May 16 through select Swatch stores.
