As soon as Royal Pop, a collaboration between Swiss watch brand Swatch and high-end watchmaker Audemars Piguet, launched on the 16th local time, unusually large crowds flocked to Swatch stores in major cities around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Hong Kong.
The BBC said Swatch stores in Manchester and Liverpool drew such crowds that they were closed for two consecutive days over safety concerns, and a watch priced at 335 pounds (about 670,000 won) was resold on eBay UK for up to 3,000 pounds (about 6 million won). French police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of about 300 people gathered in front of a store in Paris. In New York, more than 100 people camped in tents for over five days outside the Times Square Swatch store to buy a single collaboration watch priced at about 600,000 won. On the launch day, a watch priced at $400 (about 600,000 won) was listed on the U.S. watch platform Chrono24 for $1,430 to $8,472 (about 2.15 million to 12.8 million won).
Royal Pop is a pocket watch that you attach to a necklace or bag. It is not an everyday wristwatch. Made with bioceramic developed by Swatch, it is much lighter than typical metal wristwatches and comes in a variety of colors. Its exterior borrows the octagonal bezel, exposed screws and tapisserie dial pattern from Royal Oak, the signature model introduced in 1972 by Audemars Piguet, a Swiss ultra-high-end watchmaker founded in 1875. Swatch differentiated it further with colors from its Pop line released in the 1980s.
Audemars Piguet is an independent, family-owned ultra-high-end watchmaker grouped with Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin as the industry's Holy Trinity. The Royal Oak line, its flagship, typically starts at about $20,000 (about 30 million won) for preowned pieces in the U.S. Limited editions that use some solid gold exceed $140,000 (about 210 million won).
While regular consumers find it hard to buy a true Royal Oak that costs tens of millions to hundreds of millions of won, they get a chance to experience the Royal Oak universe for $400. Tim Stracke, co-founder of the watch site Chrono24, called the collaboration "the PR stunt of the decade." Royal Pop is sold only in select stores worldwide, and a person can buy just one piece per store per day. However, it is not a limited edition. Swatch said in an official statement that it "will be sold for several months."
U.S. watch retailer European Watch Company said in a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) interview that the "Swatchification" of top-tier watches has changed the game. Swatch previously collaborated with Omega in 2022 and Blancpain in 2023. They are also ultra-high-end brands, but all are affiliates under the same Swatch Group. Audemars Piguet is an independent brand outside the group and boasts a longer brand heritage than Omega and Blancpain.
According to major outlets, even the spots for lining up outside the Times Square store in New York were transacted for $200 to $600 (about 300,000 to 900,000 won) starting a few days before launch. The waiting order became an asset before the watches even changed hands. A consumer who waited five days outside the Times Square store said in a WSJ interview, "Because this is Audemars Piguet, it's a smart investment no matter how it turns out."
Experts said that instead of directly lowering prices, high-end brands like Audemars Piguet are refining a strategy inside and outside the watch industry that slices up brand heritage and distributes it to the mass market. With a prolonged downturn, consumers are increasingly reluctant to open their wallets for finished goods priced in the tens of millions of won.
According to the 2025 luxury market report co-authored by global consultancy Bain & Company and Italian luxury association Altagamma, last year's global personal luxury market was 358 billion euros (about 569 trillion won), down 2% from the previous year. The number of active luxury consumers fell 15%, from 400 million in 2022 to 340 million in 2025, and the industry operating margin dropped from 23% in 2012 to 15%–16% in 2025. Switzerland's watch industry is also in a tough spot. Last year, Swatch Group's operating profit fell to 135 million Swiss francs (about 228 billion won), less than half of the previous year's 304 million Swiss francs (about 514 billion won).
By contrast, consumer desire to own at relatively affordable prices the cachet of a high-end brand logo, iconic design, the narrative of an unusual collaboration, social media bragging rights and potential resale gains has grown. This trend does not stop with the watch industry. In the global fashion industry, which hit a slump earlier than watches, collaborations between mass-market and high-end brands have become routine. H&M, starting with Karl Lagerfeld, teamed up with world-class luxury brands such as Versace, Balmain, Maison Margiela and Simone Rocha. Supreme, a leading New York-based global streetwear company, joined forces with classic luxury brands Burberry and Louis Vuitton to turn the very clash of the two logos into a product. All of these sell small fragments of brand symbolism to consumers.
Experts said the Royal Pop frenzy is a recession-era consumption play that high-end brands are focusing on to avoid losing their mass-market touch amid widespread economic uncertainty. Audemars Piguet chose a pocket watch instead of a wristwatch, leaving the price authority of its core lineup intact. All proceeds from this collaboration will go toward preserving and passing down Swiss watchmaking techniques. Audemars Piguet CEO Laurent Perves told Bloomberg the effort is "to help draw consumers' attention to the watch industry and keep them engaged," adding, "We have to create passion beyond category constraints that might seem irrelevant."