The Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop

I got a chance to see the new Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop collaboration in person, the hottest (and most hotly debated) thing since, well, Swatch did their first collaboration with Omega. There were some restrictions, like the fact that I couldn't handle some of them without gloves, but I did get enough of an impression to have a lot of thoughts.

Yes, I think they're a lot of fun, and actually pretty impressive in some ways. I get that a lot of people will disagree, and that's fine. But to answer the last part of our headline first: you can get the Swatch x AP Royal Pop watches only at select retail stores starting May 16. You can find those stores on the Swatch website by going to the homepage, looking for the collab, and clicking the "See Stores" link. One version (with a crown at the right) is $420, while the other (with a crown at the top) is $400. Also, this is not an AP-led product, so don't call your local AP AD hoping to get one. Swatch is in charge here.

Love it or hate it, the Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop is big news. How big? A few hundred comments on our site is a good measure. But how about the fact that, in 24 hours, our "Introducing" story on the collab got about 20x an average story would do in a month and 1.75x more page views than the Rolex "Pepsi" GMT cancellation (which was the highest-traffic story of Watches & Wonders to date). We love watches over here, but it can be a bubble. There are a few rare moments when the watch world breaks containment. The sale of Paul Newman's "Paul Newman" was probably the first big one. The MoonSwatch, however, was much, much bigger.

I still see people around the world wearing new MoonSwatches. I often chat up owners, complementing their "MoonSwatch" by name, and half the time, they don't even know that's what it's called. Yet, some collectors to this day still get upset that the MoonSwatch exists. It's no surprise that the Royal Pop would reach an audience far outside our normal community.

Just like the iconic eight-sided bezel (with eight screws), the watches come in eight colors. Otto Rosso (pink case and dial with red bezel), Huit Blanc (white case, dial, and bezel, with rainbow-colored indices and screws in eight colors, for the eight-sided bezel), Green Eight (green case and dial, with lime-green bezel), Orenji Hachi (navy case with orange/red screws, indices, and hands), and Ocho Negro (black dial and case, white bezel and indices), Lan Ba (blue case and dial, a light blue bezel, crown, and small seconds) and OTG ROZ (pink case, a yellow crown and bezel, a teal dial, pink subsidiary seconds, and black and yellow accents).

The first thing that struck me was how relatively small and extremely light the watches were. A Royal Pop next to a 1919 Illinois Grade 89, size 16 watch.

That lightness and small size immediately convey the sense that this is, yes, a lighthearted mechanical fascination rather than a super-serious, ultra-luxurious Royal Oak. If you were hoping for a $400 shortcut into the often-fought-over space of AP ownership with a serious piece of horology, you won't find it here. Bioceramic will always feel slightly cheap, for lack of a better word, given that it's got the texture (and a plant-derived component) of plastic, but they didn't skimp on build quality for the price. Even the crown is a nice hexagonal Royal Oak-style, with branding from both AP and Swatch.

And yet, the movement is no slouch. In fact, I'm pretty impressed with how far they went. This is a brand-new manually wound caliber. For people not into watches, that means you have to wind the watch yourself—no battery or little disc inside that spins as you move to wind it for you. But that keeps the watch thin. The watch has scratch-resistant, anti-glare sapphire crystals on the front and back, so you can see the movement. If you look at the back, you can see this pop art-style clash of colors and patterns. A giant plate covers the movement; a smaller one holds the balance that ticks at 3Hz (if it's like other SISTEM51 movements); and then there's this gold gear on the side that holds the mainspring, which powers the watch.

The watch runs for an impressive maximum of 90 hours, which is great for such an affordable watch. As you wind it, you can see the spring inside will disappear more and more until it's fully wound. Once you can't see the silver spring and only the gold barrel color shows, you know the watch is fully wound. As for how accurate it will be, all the watches are regulated in the factory with a laser to -5/+15 seconds per day. They also use a Nivachron anti-magnetic balance, which was originally developed by the Swatch Group in collaboration with Audemars Piguet.

One negative is that Swatch crowns always feel a little flimsy, and I was a bit worried I might pull the crown out or break it when setting the time. I also noticed that the ratio of crown turns to set the hands made it feel like I was turning it forever. That said, the click of the manual wind was actually pretty satisfying, seeing as the watch was only $400.

There are things I didn't get a chance to test, like the lume (I was photographing outside and couldn't get a lume shot for the life of me) or the color-fastness of the cases. I also can't tell you how long the cases will hold up when they're hanging off the side of your Birkin and being bashed into the side of your chauffeur's Rolls-Royce, or whatever influencers do these days. They're Bioceramic, after all, and probably will show dings and dents pretty quickly.

But the level of attention to detail and, honestly, the quality of a $400-ish watch were pretty impressive. I wish I had a Royal Oak (insert petition for Hodinkee to expense one for me for the future) to compare the tapisserie dial side by side, but take a look at that quality. Sure, it's a stamped pattern in Bioceramic, but it's pretty damn cool. The bezel's smooth edges are perfect, and the vertical striations on its top look like brushed metal. The movement "finishing" isn't much to write home about, but they covered it up with a well-considered pop art motif. Even the small seconds subdial has circular "graining" stamped into it.

I find the online listings asking thousands of dollars kind of ridiculous. I mean, many of the accounts were just created recently, a lot of them use AI pictures of old, fake products, and you're just begging to be scammed. So take a deep breath, smile, maybe wait a bit, and enjoy life. There is plenty of serious watchmaking to discuss, and we'll certainly get back to that soon. Ultimately, while the watch may not be for you, it's meant to be a fun product that reaches a broader audience beyond our little world of watch enthusiasm and brings new people into the fold. A relatively affordable price, bright colors, and an iconic design are a great way to do that.