The collaboration, featuring eight pocket watches that cost between $400 and $420, drew massive crowds to Swatch stores around the world
Credit: Raphaëlle PELTIER / AFP via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Swiss watch brand Swatch closed stores across the world after its new collaboration with Audemars Piguet drew unprecedented crowds to its storefronts
- “It was pretty hectic … it’s nasty, but I was able to get in,” a shopper said after waiting in line for five days
- The collaboration features eight new designs that merge the “avant‑garde design of Audemars Piguet’s iconic Royal Oak and the modular ingenuity of Swatch’s vibrant POP line”
Swatch closed stores in various cities across the world due to “extraordinarily high demand.”
After the Swiss watchmaker's latest Royal Pop collaboration with Audemars Piguet drew unprecedented crowds to its storefronts on Saturday, May 16, Swatch announced on Instagram that it would be closing nine of its stores in the U.S. “in view of public safety considerations.”
“Today's Bioceramic Royal Pop Collection launch saw extraordinarily high demand,” the brand wrote in the caption. “Some of our stores had to be closed in accordance with our security staff and local authorities to ensure a safe environment for everyone.”
The brand also closed its Manchester, England, store along with many others in Asia, France and beyond. Swatch stated on Instagram that “in some countries, queues of more than 50 people cannot be accepted.”
Credit: Swatch
In videos shared on social media, a packed crowd of people can be seen standing outside the Roosevelt Field Mall in Long Island, N.Y., as police officers blasted pepper spray into the sea of shoppers pushing their way through what appeared to be a parking garage.
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The collaboration between Swatch and Audemars Piguet “merges the avant‑garde design of Audemars Piguet's iconic Royal Oak and the modular ingenuity of Swatch's vibrant POP line from the 1980s,” according to the brand's website.
In addition to announcing the launch of eight new, more affordable designs, ranging in price from $400 to $420, the brand requested that shoppers don't “rush to our stores in large numbers to acquire this product,” emphasizing that the collection will remain available for “several months.”
Despite these announcements, a man was arrested in South Wales after he and approximately 300 other people attempted to gain entry to the St. David's shopping center around 6:20 a.m. local time on the day of the launch, per the BBC.
Credit: Laurent Caron / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty
"A 25-year-old man from Pengam was arrested and issued with a Section 35 dispersal notice with the conditions that they are not to enter Cardiff city centre again during Saturday 16 May,” the police force told the outlet.
John McIntosh, a shopper who found himself in the middle of the chaos at the opening of the Swatch store in New York's Times Square in hopes of reselling his purchases, told The Guardian that his experience was similar to being in “a mosh pit.”
Another buyer, who gave his name as Mac, claimed that he and many others were only able to get their hands on one of the watches because they spent five days waiting in line.
“It was pretty hectic … it's nasty, but I was able to get in,” he said. “Retail for them is about $400 — I sold one just now for $4,000.”
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