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Swatch drops US$400 Royal Pop watch. Then ‘people got crazy’ from Hong Kong to US

After the Audemars Piguet x Swatch watch launched to ‘mosh pit’ vibes from Europe to Asia, buyers are being assured there’s no shortage

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People queue up outside a store for the first day sale of the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop collection at Swatch Mira Place, in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, on May 16, 2026. Photo: Edmond So
People wait in line to enter the Swatch store in Times Square, New York, on May 16, 2026, ahead of the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop watch release. Photo: AFP
Associated Press
In Paris, police deployed tear gas. In Milan, a fist-fight erupted. In Hong Kong, Singapore, London and New York, all-night queues snaked from the doors of Swatch stores – the latest examples of “drop culture” to flash across the globe when status symbols and resale value collide.
The company at the centre of it all, Swatch, is no stranger to over-the-top retail outbreaks, and said on May 18 that there is no shortage of its Royal Pop pocket watch – a collaboration with luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet.

All for a “bioceramic” timekeeper that retails for around US$400 – but perhaps more to the point, resells for thousands of dollars. By May 18, the candy-coloured flex objects had proliferated on eBay, with one boasting: “In hand!!! Swatch x AP Royal Pop,” £3,055 (US$4,100) “or best offer”.

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It was the latest eruption in a generation-long trail of consumerist frenzy – both online and in the physical world – that has touched companies from Nike to Walmart to Apple as human beings race, sometimes frantically, to keep pace with buying trends and the potential for resale.
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Swatch-Audemars Piguet watch launch ignites global chaos, tear gas fired in Paris

“It looks like people got crazy to get a Royal Pop to make money through resale, not because they are fans of the Swatch,” says Pierre-Yves Donze, a professor of business history at Osaka University’s Graduate School of Economics in Japan. “People want money, especially. Royal Pop is not like a cool product, but a way to make easy money.”

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