Cover Swatch x Audemars Piguet collaboration is the watch world’s latest obsession (Photo: courtesy of instagram.com/Swatch)
Swatch x Audemars Piguet collaboration is the watch world’s latest obsession (Photo: courtesy of instagram.com/Swatch)
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With profits cratered and luxury fatigue setting in, Swatch has five very good reasons to bring Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak to the masses—and both sides may already know it. Tatler is ready for some Royal Pop
It started, as most watch world earthquakes do, with a font. On May 6, Swatch’s Instagram went live with a pair of cryptic posters—bearing the word “Royal” and “Pop,” its P and O overlapping in a way that sent collector forums into immediate meltdown. The typeface was unmistakable: it was Audemars Piguet’s own Royal Oak lettering, practically lifted from the caseback of a US$30,000 watch and plastered, wordlessly, across a Swatch campaign, with no caption and no explanation. Just a release date—May 16—and that knowing clak sound.
Within hours, the internet had done the math. By the morning of May 9 (in Hong Kong), both brands made it official: the Royal Pop is real, it’s coming, and it may be the most consequential watch collaboration since the MoonSwatch sent crowds snaking around city blocks in 2022. Only this time, Swatch isn’t borrowing from within the family. Audemars Piguet—fiercely independent, one-third of watchmaking’s Holy Trinity—has crossed the aisle. So why does this collaboration make perfect sense for both sides? Tatler has a theory supported by five reasons.
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Proven sales boost
The MoonSwatch wasn’t just a hit—it was a phenomenon. Swatch sold over a million units in under a year of its 2022 launch, a figure that dwarfed analyst predictions and briefly made it the most talked-about watch on the planet. But that energy has since faded, and the numbers tell a brutal story: Swatch Group’s net profit collapsed 89 per cent in 2025 to just CHF 25 million, with an operating margin of a razor-thin 2.1 per cent. Even Omega—the crown jewel of the group—is visibly underperforming rivals like Rolex and Cartier, weighed down by bloated inventory and a China market that has yet to recover. Swatch needs another lightning-in-a-bottle moment, and it needs one now. Audemars Piguet—one of watchmaking’s Holy Trinity, independently owned and culturally untouchable—is the only partner that could credibly deliver it.
Existing brand ties
This isn't a cold call. Swatch Group and Audemars Piguet have been in each other’s orbit for years. In 2018, the two companies co-developed Nivachron—a titanium-based, anti-magnetic alloy for watch hairsprings that outperforms silicon in shock resistance and magnetic immunity, and has been used in the Royal Oak ever since. Then, when the Blancpain x Swatch collab dropped in 2023, Audemars Piguet’s official Instagram account showed up in the comments with a pointed question: “When do we launch?” Add to that the well-documented personal friendship between Swatch CEO Nick Hayek and former Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henry Bennahmias—who publicly called the MoonSwatch one of the best ideas the Swiss watch industry had seen in years—and the groundwork for this collaboration has been laid for a long time.
Affordability gap
The average Royal Oak is firmly out of reach for most buyers. The Royal Pop changes that equation. No price has been officially confirmed, but based on the MoonSwatch and Blancpain collaboration, we predict the Royal Pop will land somewhere in the US$300–$450 range, making the Royal Oak’s octagonal silhouette and signature screwed bezel accessible to an entirely new generation of buyers. Crucially, at that price point, it doesn’t threaten the real thing; it advertises it.
Innovation synergy
Swatch has always been more playful than its collaborative partners. Think removable Pop cases, lanyard wearables, pop-art dials. The Royal Pop looks set to lean into exactly that. Teasers have shown coloured lanyards and modular elements, suggesting a wearable concept that goes well beyond a standard wristwatch. More significantly, the Royal Pop will reportedly feature a mechanical movement—Swatch’s in-house Sistem51. It will justify a higher price point while keeping the watch in accessible territory.
Cultural relevance
The Royal Oak already sits at the intersection of luxury and streetwear—worn by Jay-Z and LeBron James, referenced in rap lyrics, coveted by a generation that wasn’t alive when Gerald Genta designed it in 1972. Pairing it with Swatch amplifies its DNA. More importantly, this collaboration breaks new ground in the industry: every previous Swatch luxury collaboration has been an internal affair, a conversation within the Swatch Group family. Audemars Piguet is independent and its willingness to cross that line signals that the era of luxury brands treating accessibility as a threat may finally be over.
As the Regional Editor for Watches and Jewellery and Editorial Content Lead for Tatler GMT, Amrita Katara specialises in luxury watch and jewellery coverage across Asia, with expertise in editorial strategy, feature writing and interviews with industry leaders. Her past roles span luxury lifestyle media and client partnerships. Based in Mumbai, Amrita’s work bridges global trends and Asian market insights.
