Swatch and Audemars Piguet unveiled a brand-new collaboration line on Saturday called the Royal Pop, an affordable take on the Swiss watchmaker's Royal Oak that borrows heavily from Swatch's Pop Watch concept. The new watch will hit stores on Saturday, and the companies say more will be revealed tomorrow night.
The Royal Pop riffs on a Swatch idea that first arrived in 1986, when the Pop watch debuted as a large 47mm piece with detachable dials that could be clipped onto clothing, a keychain, a bag or whatever the wearer fancied. Swatch later discontinued the line before reviving it in 2022, this time typically in a 45mm case.
The reveal followed a run of cryptic teasers that had watch fans guessing at prices, mock-ups and possible designs for days. In effect, the launch recasts Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak through one of Swatch's most playful concepts, turning a watch-collecting fever into a product release that is already being dissected before it reaches stores.
What happens next is the part collectors will be watching closest: another announcement is due tomorrow night, and the first watches are set to land in stores on Saturday. For now, the Royal Pop is less a finished answer than the opening move in a collaboration designed to keep the market talking.
