AP x Swatch Royal Pop launch: Long queues at Ion Orchard and Marina Bay Sands, VivoCity outlet closes due to crowds
- On Saturday, May 16, 2026, long queues formed at Swatch stores in Singapore and New York for the launch of the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Bioceramic Royal Pop Collection, featuring eight pocket watch models priced between $535 and $570.
- The collaboration merges Audemars Piguet's Royal Oak design codes with Swatch's Bioceramic materials, offering an accessible entry point to the luxury brand, whose traditional pieces typically start at $25,000.
- Enthusiasts camped overnight using unofficial paper queue numbers to manage crowds; Mr Lim described the long wait as "part of the process," though pushing and shoving occurred as lines converged outside stores.
- By Saturday morning, all stores sold out within two hours, and Swatch closed its VivoCity location following a collective decision with local authorities to ensure safety amid overwhelming crowds.
- Listings for the watches appeared on Carousell with prices reaching $10,000; while collector Austin Rogers criticized the "disposability" of the Bioceramic design, others praised Audemars Piguet for reinvesting proceeds into emerging watchmaking talent.
31 Articles
31 Articles
The release of the Royal Pop pocket watch, the work of Audemars Piguet and Swatch, caused spectacular queues, even frictions, in Switzerland as elsewhere in the worldWe saw queues already on Friday.For example in Geneva, market street, fans were sitting on their foldable camping seats, supplies at their feet, and a concrete patience: they were going to spend the night trying to buy a watch.This Saturday, thousands of people around the world trie…
AP x Swatch Royal Pop launch sparks chaos in Bengaluru, Delhi, and other cities; Dubai Mall cancels release
AP x Swatch, officially the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop Collection, is a new line of eight limited in-store pocket watches that mixes Royal Oak-inspired design with Swatch’s POP concept. With prices starting around $400 and sales restricted to selected stores.
Dozens of people were waiting in front of every Swatch store, sometimes since the day before, to get the Royal Pop on sale this Saturday. The police had to intervene in several cities in the face of overflows.
The new "Royal Pop" watch, the result of the collaboration between Swatch and Audemars Piguet, is on sale this Saturday. It will be available in a limited number, for a price between 385 and 400 euros.
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