Here’s Your First Look at the Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop – GQ

And just like that, watch culture enters a new chapter. Yep, Audemars Piguet x Swatch just dropped a collection of Royal Pop pocket watches. Feast your eyes on them, screenshot them, pop them in that very active “OMG AP x Swatch” group chat you just set up, do what you need to do. Then, when you’re ready, scroll down to find out everything about this unlikely horological coexistence—so spectacularly unexpected that less than a week ago absolutely no one (myself included) could have possibly believed such a collab would ever happen.

Last Wednesday, at Swatch HQ, that changed—at least for me. Looking up to see Ilaria Resta, Audemars Piguet CEO, and Nick Hayek, Swatch Group CEO, walk out of the Nicolas G. Hayek Conference Hall together was a real holy shit moment for me. What they proceeded to share with a small group of journalists–ones with no preconceived ideas or AI-designed bioceramic Royal Oaks clouding their judgment—stands to be a bigger deal than even the culture-shifting MoonSwatch was when it was unveiled in March 2022.

“We are not just bringing a new dial or a new band; we have something new to say. It’s a win-win what we have done,” Hayek tells me just 10 minutes after unveiling the Royal Pop collection. And Resta backs up his sentiment: “The only way to play safe is to not do anything, and that’s not in AP’s DNA. If people don’t criticize the project, then we haven’t pushed hard enough.

“I see this as a gift for the entire industry,” Resta adds, “because what we are doing ultimately is educating people to love watchmaking in Switzerland.”

The one-off collection comprises eight pocket watches in eight different colorways (white, Huit Blanc; pink, Otto Rosso; green, Green Eight; lime green/blue, Blaue Acht; navy/orange, Orenji Hachi; blue/light blue, Lan Ba; black/white, Ocho Negro; pink/yellow/teal, Otg Roz). Depending on how competent you are on Duolingo, you’ll clock that each name is made up of ‘eight’ and the color of it in French, English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, German, and Romansh (a lesser-used language in Switzerland).

You’ll also notice some very strong design elements from AP’s iconic Royal Oak. There’s the unique octagon (i.e., eight-sided) shape and the bezel, which has eight visible screws. (By now, you might have noticed that eight is the recurring theme.)

Each dial pays its respects to the famous “Petite Tapisserie,” the very recognizable pattern on the dial of most Royal Oaks. The 12 hour markers set out on the dial and coated with Grade A Super-LumiNova are also very Royal Oak–coded. There is a protective sapphire plate on the front and on the back, making it 8.4mm in thickness in total. Every lanyard is made from calfskin and has a bioceramic attachment that the watch case can click in and out of (hence the “Clack!” teasers). The Royal Pop measures 40mm without the clip and 44.2mm by 53.2mm with it.

There’s a bit of “business up front, party at the back” vibe when you flip over the watches to see the caseback. Each piece has its own unique Pop Art visible on parts of the movement. As suspected, Swatch’s trusty SISTEM51 caliber is powering the Royal Pop pieces. However, it has been completely reconstructed to make it a hand-wound mechanism (these are pocket watches, folks, so you don’t need a self-winding mechanism), which has an impressive 90 hours of power reserve.

There are 15 active patents for this movement, and while I’m not going to go into all of them, one of the most important ones is the barrel drum. Some little holes are visible, which act as a power reserve indicator—when the watch is completely empty, the dots are gray. Wind it about 80 times to completely wind the mechanism and the dots will change to yellow gold. The piece de resistance is the antimagnetic Nivachron balance spring, which some people have rightly predicted might feature in the collab as Swatch and AP have worked on the development of this exact part before.

If you know your pocket watches, you’ll know there are various types and styles. Two of the most popular are the Lépine, where the crown is at 12 o’clock, and a Savonnette pocket watch, which situates the crown at 3 p.m. Six of the pieces are Lépine, while the two Savonnette boast petite seconde subdials. Of the two Savonnettes (Lan Ba and Otg Roz), the latter borrows the big, bold shades of yellow, turquoise, and pink from Andy Warhol’s painting of Marilyn Monroe.

For the white “Huit Blanc” Royal Pop, you’ll notice that the indices are all different colors. Each piece will have the same sequence of colored hour markers on the dials, but the same won’t apply to the colored screws on the bezel. They have been assembled at random, so Swatch says there are 3 million possibilities, meaning each “Huit Blanc” pocket watch will essentially be unique.

Back in the very same room in March 2022, I was present for the unveiling of the first MoonSwatch collection. I predicted they would break the internet, and I wasn’t far off. This Swatch x Audemars Piguet collab blazes a trail, though, for two reasons. First, the noise is already arguably greater because of AP’s place within popular culture, compared to Omega. Second, the Royal Pop is more groundbreaking because it is potentially going to redefine how people wear watches.

“Do I think there will be queues?” jokes Hayek. “Is this really a serious question? The question will be, are we facing the crazy queues from the first MoonSwatch? Are we facing 5,000 people in front of a store in Australia? It might be. I don’t know.” So far, the buzz seems to have already eclipsed the MoonSwatch: Queues have already started to form outside Swatch stores in London and New York.

Hayek and Resta were on the same page when they confirmed that while there will be a limitation in terms of how long the Royal Pop will be produced, Swatch will not continue to make them eternally. “There is not a number that we are fixing and sending out to people. Perhaps 8 months or 18?” says Hayek. “The only thing [they can confirm] is it’s a one-off collaboration.”

This will, of course, make it attractive to resellers. “It’s unavoidable—they know that the product will be short. It’s very selective. It’s not online. You can only buy it in a store,” adds Hayek.

It is also novel and exciting, and very much aimed at the Gen Z’ers who are keen to get into watchmaking. “It’s inscribed in this philosophy I have that watchmaking is not only the product but it’s also the culture around it, so it’s very important to be a bit audacious and ambitious and go after the next generations,” says Resta. “The idea of this lanyard is smart because it’s a very premium way to attach it around your neck or to a bag. I really see many more expressions as we will not be able to tell people how to use it. We want people to tell us how to use it. We want people to play with it.”

Resta’s first-ever watch was a Swatch at 13 years old, a reward she got after doing well in her exams. Today, two and a half years after taking over at AP, Resta’s vision for an AP x Swatch has been realized.

“Compared to a lot of people from the traditional watch industry, Ilaria’s mind is open. She’s not blocked by ‘you cannot do this’. That was really cool,” says Hayek on working together. “And I give her credit for the pocket watch—that came from her. Immediately, I said, ‘You’re right. Swatch has the Pop watch, this is perfect.’ So the name Royal Pop was easy. We were both in agreement that there would be no wristwatch.”

For the history fans out there, Swatch’s Pop has been around since the ’80s, and AP’s Royal Oak debuted in 1972, so now feels like as good a time as ever to pool together the genes of these icons.

“The way we worked with Nick has been very informal and very creative,” says Resta. “We are two people who like to think outside of the box and not be constrained by fear or judgment. We do what we believe is right.”

Both Swatch and Audemars Piguet share a similar mission to keep evolving the watch industry, which is why this partnership could be so fruitful for both brands. “We wanted to donate AP’s entire proceeds to initiatives supporting the preservation and transmission of watchmaking savoir-faire, with a focus on rare skills,” says Resta. “This is something that is endangered, and this is a way where pop culture can support high-end watchmaking. We don’t see this as a commercial activity; rather, we leverage the scale of Swatch to reach more young people. Audemars Piguet is exclusive when it comes to the number of watches we can produce because we preserve our philosophy of handmade finishings and complications. But at the same time, we don’t want to exclude people. That’s where Swatch came in.”

Prices start from $400 for the Lépine-style pocket watches and $420 for the two Savonnette-style pieces. Come Saturday, they will be available to purchase in-store at 200 selected Swatch stores, with one piece per person per store per day. It is worth noting that there are also longer lanyards and desk clock holders (in all eight colors) and these accessories will be available online. The accessories purposefully don’t share the ‘”Royal Pop” branding.

This story originally appeared on British GQ.