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How Nicolas Hayek\'s ASUAG/SSIH merger (1983) and Swatch brand launch (March 1983) rescued Swiss watchmaking from the quartz crisis.
Largest Swiss watch employer (~17,000 staff). 18 brands from Breguet/Blancpain at the top to Swatch at entry. ETA SA + Nivarox-FAR. Hayek family controls.
Mid-May the Swatch x AP launch turned into chairs flying in Milan, pepper spray in New York, and a Utrecht shop owner finding poop on his doorstep. A month later you barely hear about it. Here's how Swatch killed the chaos without ever announcing it.
Teddy Baldassarre Videos
The hotly anticipated Swatch x AP collaboration has been revealed. Watch the video for all the details, we'll break down everything you need to know about the latest collectible collaboration.
SJX Watches
Audemars Piguet (AP) and Swatch have teamed up to launch the Royal Pop, a series of lanyard-borne pocket swatches in eight pop art-inspired colourways set to hit stores on May 16th. It also debuts new manually wound Sistem 51 movements, including one with small seconds, to capture the pocket watch feel. This could be seen as AP having a little fun on a project set in motion by a Swatch-obsessed former CEO, or long-term thinking to cultivate the next generation of customers. Initial thoughts I imagine ambivalence will define the general reaction to the Royal Pop, as it should. A pop art-inspired pocket Swatch is a challenging product to casual watch buyers and enthusiasts alike. And I mean that as praise — it would have been much easier to go the MoonSwatch or Scuba Fifty Fathoms route, but much less interesting. Ref. SSX03L101N. Case in point, a non-enthusiast friend texted me over the weekend expressing interest in the Royal Pop under the common assumption that it would take after the MoonSwatch. In short, he was expecting a plastic Royal Oak. He was less enthusiastic — but not entirely put off — when I asked him how he’d feel about a manually wound pocket watch. Ref. SSX03R100N. While my favourite watches are overwhelmingly pocket watches (or pocket chronometers), I can’t see myself wearing one regularly, be it a Swatch Pop or a Nicole Nielsen tourbillon. I do, however, see myself attaching an Otg Roz Royal Pop to my keychain or workbag. Considering the recent ...
Worn & Wound
Well, it’s here. After a great deal of speculation, Swatch and Audemars Piguet’s new “Royal Pop” collaboration has been unveiled. Only a few years ago, a partnership between Swatch, known mostly for inexpensive, colorful quartz watches that often serve as a gateway to a life of watch enthusiasm, and Audemars Piguet, a “Holy Trinity” brand that makes the Royal Oak, one of the most exclusive and coveted watches in the world, would have felt impossible. But the MoonSwatch changed all that, and now it seems like just about anything is possible in the world of high/low collaborations. The first thing to point out is the very obvious fact that this is not a wristwatch. These are, in fact, pocket watches, in bioceramic Royal Oak shaped cases. There are eight watches in total in two different styles, and they are powered by manually sound SISTEM51 movements. The Royal Oak design motifs are easy to identify here. Each has the expected “Petite Tapisserie” dial that the Royal Oak is known for, as well as an 8 sided bezel. They even included the hexagonal screws. Let’s go through the multiple variants of the Royal Pop. First we have the “Lépine” style case, which has a crown located at the 12:00 position. There are six colorways of the Lépine style case: Otto Rosso (pink and red), Huit Blanc (white with rainbow accents), Green Eight (green on green), Orenji Hachi (navy with orange accents), Blaue Acht (lime green and light blue) and Ocho Negro (black and ...
Hodinkee
What We Know The cat is out of the bag on what is likely to be the biggest watch news of the year. The Swatch x Audemars Piguet "Royal Pop" just launched, ahead of its official availability on May 16, 2026, at selected Swatch stores. There are no wristwatches here, just eight unique pocket watches in two different styles, cased in brightly colored Royal Oak-shaped bioceramic cases, powered by manually wound mechanical SISTEM51 movements. Eight watches, for each side of the iconic Royal-Oak bezel. All the watches are instantly recognizable as Royal Oak-inspired. They have a "Petite Tapisserie" dial and a Royal Oak octagonal bezel with eight hexagonal screws. Every watch comes with a 40mm case (without the clip) and measures 44.2mm by 53.2mm when mounted in the clip. The thickness is 8.4mm. The hands and indices on all watches feature Grade-A Super-LumiNova. The watches can be dropped in your pocket, worn in the pocket, or popped into a holder attached to a calfskin lanyard (in three lengths), attached to a bag, or placed in a removable stand that lets the watch function as a desk clock. Swatch and AP say this will change the way we wear watches, breaking free from the wrist (suggesting the expected wristwatch collaboration is unlikely at the moment). The new Swatch x Audemars Piguet "Royal Pop" comes in two main variants. There's the "Lépine" style, where the crown is at 12 o'clock on the pocket watch, which come in six varieties: Otto Rosso (pink case and dial with red ...
Hodinkee
Swatch is planning a collaboration with Audemars Piguet, expected to be one of the most significant and talked-about watch releases of the year. Swatch began teasing the tie-up last week with social media posts featuring the distinctive font associated with AP's iconic Royal Oak model and the words 'Royal' and 'Pop.' That led to hordes of speculation online that the brand was preparing a collaboration with AP. And then, over the weekend, the two marques confirmed that indeed they would be releasing the new product on May 16. Many Swatch boutiques, including its main store in Geneva, are displaying boxes or chests (presumably holding the watch models) promoting the new Royal Pop collab, in much the same way they did with the Omega and Blancpain collaborations ahead of the launches. An Audemars Piguet X Swatch chest in the window at a Swatch boutique in Geneva. So, what will the Audemars Piguet x Swatch watch be? Well, we simply don't know at this point, but there are plenty of clues suggesting what it could be. The 'Pop' model line from Swatch has been around for decades and has served as a fashion-forward way to reimagine timekeeping and watches. First introduced around 1986, the Swatch 'Pop' watches could be removed from their straps and 'popped' into various accessory holders. These ranged from pocket watch holders, chains, and lanyards to refrigerator magnets and even a RECCO-branded accessory holder/transmitter for avalanche safety. A current, Swatch 'Pop' pocke...
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This Could Be the Best Integrated Bracelet Watch Under 5k
Two Broke Watch Snobs
The Swatch Scubaqua returns with four new affordable dive watches at $155, including two with built-in Swatch Pay at no added cost.
SJX Watches
Announced last year, Swatch’s AI-DADA platform is now live, enabling customers to design and build their own custom Swatch with a design that will never be repeated. With a low entry price and quick turnaround, I took the platform for a spin. Why AI Swatch has been a design-oriented brand since its debut in 1983. Not only has Swatch produced a dizzying array of original designs of its own, over the years the brand has collaborated with celebrated artists and leading institutions to democratise access to wearable art. About a decade ago, Swatch’s world-class logistics infrastructure enabled it to offer customised watches via an online configurator that enabled customers to mix and match different elements from a pre-selected range of options. That was quickly followed by the ability to generate a custom-printed design, by dragging a Swatch template over a selection of human-created patterns and designs. The AI-DADA system, launched earlier this year, builds on this basis in way that only Swatch could pull off. The system leverages an undisclosed large language model (LLM) to generate a custom design based on a user’s 300-character prompt. The result is a made-to-order Swatch of the customer’s own design, delivered in as few as five days. What’s more, the cost is little more than an off-the-shelf model, at just US$195. With little to lose, I took the plunge. AI-DADA Swatch watches are powered by standard quartz movements in the typical New Gent case size. Three str...
Hodinkee
Based on your prompts to its AI software, Swatch will design your watch, produce and ship it to you within about a week.
Fratello
Morgan Stanley Investment Management published its Ninth Annual Swiss Watcher on February 19th. The report dives deep into the commercial performance of the Swiss watch market on a brand-by-brand level. I assume very few watch enthusiasts read the whole thing, but one table is rather famous: the top 50 Swiss watch brands ranked by turnover. […] Visit Subprime Reporting? Thoughts On The Recent Morgan Stanley/Swatch Group Controversy to read the full article.
Time+Tide
We dig into Morgan Stanley's latest Swiss watch industry report, and explain what it means for the average watch lover.The post What does Morgan Stanley’s top 50 Swiss watch brands list mean for the average enthusiast? (And Swatch Group’s two cents considered) appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Video
What does your grail watch REALLY say about you? Today we're roasting 20 of the most iconic grail watches in the world — from the Rolex Submariner and Daytona to the Patek Philippe Nautilus, AP Royal Oak, Richard Mi...
Hodinkee
Swatch takes aim at the numbers and methods of the widely read Morgan Stanley 'Swiss Watcher' industry report.
Monochrome
It’s the time of year when businesses announce their financial performance. Following Richemont and LVMH, Swatch Group has just released its 2025 results. In a challenging environment for the watch industry, the sales of Swatch Group – the Swiss powerhouse and owner of Omega, Longines, and Tissot – were CHF 6,280 million, down 1.3% at constant exchange rates […]
SJX Watches
Having previously collaborated with almost every major art museum in the world, from MoMA to the Louvre, Swatch has licensed four masterpieces of 20th-century art from the Guggenheim, including works on display in New York and Venice. Accessibly priced, non-limited and available online, the Swatch x Guggenheim collection brings works from Monet, Degas, Klee, and Pollock to a wrist near you. Initial thoughts Painted dials have a long history in watchmaking, but the difficult nature of the work meant that for most of history they remained out of reach for all but the wealthiest clientele. While hand-painted dials are vanishingly rare and breathtakingly expensive, modern production methods mean that legendary masterpieces can now be easily scaled down and mass produced. Swatch was a pioneer in this regard, introducing its first artist collaboration with Kiki Picasso in 1985, just two years after the company launched its revolutionary plastic watch. The Picasso collaboration was the first of many, and since then there’s hardly a major art museum that hasn’t licensed selected works to Swatch. The works selected for this collaboration come from two different Guggenheim collections. Three of them are famously on display at the Guggenheim New York, while the fourth may be seen at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The odd-looking double-length seconds hand is an homage to this transatlantic duality. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Functionally, the four quar...
Worn & Wound
Few watch brands enjoy the instant brand recognition of Swatch, especially non-luxury brands. Sure, Swatch has its haters-though I’ve always found said haters unimaginative and lacking in whimsy-but the fact that their social cache and cultural relevance has stayed steady for decades is impressive. A self-proclaimed horology superfan could argue that there is nothing mechanically impressive about the brand’s offerings, but that misses the point of Swatch entirely; after all, fashion is not a dirty word. All of this sounds like vindictive talk from a Swatch sympathizer, but really, it comes from a place of genuine admiration for the brand’s ability to stick to their guns, both aesthetically and from a business standpoint. Even with recent splashy collab offerings like the Omega MoonSwatch line, they’ve managed to stay affordable, accessible, and above all, collectable. Swatch is no stranger to collaborations with museums and artists, but even so, the new Guggenheim Collection promises some snazzy new wrist candy for fine art enthusiasts. Inspired by the works of Edgar Degas, Paul Klee, Claude Monet, and Jackson Pollock, and created in tandem with the Guggenheim New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the line is just the latest entry in Swatch’s long-standing relationship with the fine art world. Four watches are available from the collection: two feature 34mm biosourced material cases, while the other two measure in at 41mm. Biosourced mat...
Deployant
Swatch releases a special edition to celebrate the Year of the Horse with a special art piece in collaboration with Chinese artist Yu Wenjie.
Video
Two Broke Watch Snobs
The new Swatch Holiday Collection mixes polished chronographs and SISTEM51 automatics in a balanced, easy-to-wear lineup.
Hodinkee
Swatch mixes up a few key elements with its What If? model to note its displeasure with the financial burden faced by Swiss watchmakers exporting to the key U.S. market.
Teddy Baldassarre
Within the last few years, one watch has received more hype - or overhype - than any other: the multi-brand collaboration that set the watch world on fire three years ago, the Omega x Swatch Moonswatch. People waited hours in line for it. Flippers grabbed as many as they could and listed them well above their retail cost all over the internet. People were charmed. People were horrified. Either way, people were talking. Wherever you stand on the old Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch debate, no one can argue that its very existence didn’t change the landscape of watches irrevocably. We have firmly entered the post-MoonSwatch era. But now, three years later, what change did this unlikely Bioceramic collaboration incite? What’s up with this collaboration now? And will this duo of watch giants ever be stopped? Below, I will tackle the controversial topic we’re gathered here today to mull over: the Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch. Further, I will do my best to break down the context of it all in an easily digestible manner, mix in my own philosophical musings on ways to look at this Frankenstein hybrid of luxury-meets-mass-production, and dive into one specific piece from the 11 original models, in form and function. So without further ado, let’s get into the good stuff. Some Context When the first round of the Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch blasted onto the scene, it was something of an example of right product, right time. The hallowed (or blasphemous) year was 2022, which, as ...
Time+Tide
From watches made from mountain rocks to automata that rock our world, there were more than a few big releases this week.The post New releases from Tissot, Swatch, Vacheron Constantin and more appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
![Fratello Talks: Swatch Group Releases 2025 [Live From The Utrecht Watch Valley Event]](https://www.fratellowatches.com/cdn-cgi/image/anim=false/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Fratello-Talks-Swatch-Group-Novelties-2025-Utrecht-scaled.jpg)
Fratello
Welcome to another on-location episode of Fratello Talks, this time from the Watch Valley event in Utrecht, where the Swatch Group unveiled its latest novelties for 2025. In attendance were Nacho, Daan, and RJ, keen to get a full preview of the year’s releases from the brands present. The event was packed with exciting novelties […] Visit Fratello Talks: Swatch Group Releases 2025 [Live From The Utrecht Watch Valley Event] to read the full article.
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Deployant
Swatch's laterst release: the Mission to Earthphase in Moonshine gold, and now with a blue bloceramic case and blue NATO strap.
Two Broke Watch Snobs
I genuinely thought we were done with these. The lines, the madness, the rotating cast of Bioceramic planets-it felt like the MoonSwatch thing had run its course a dozen releases ago. But Swatch, in all its chaotic energy, has decided we’re not done yet. So here we are. Again.
Time+Tide
While the Swatch x Blancpain collab opened the door for many to the world of dive watches, what are others in a similar price range? The post 6 alternatives to the Swatch x Blancpain Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.
Monochrome
In a challenging environment for the watch industry, Swatch Group, the Swiss powerhouse owner of brands such as Omega, Longines, Tissot and Breguet, reported sales of CHF 3,059 million for the first half of 2025, representing a decline of 7.1% at constant exchange rates and 10.4% on a comparable basis. The operating profit dropped to […]
Fratello
Some days, you just feel like not adhering to the rules, right? I have to say, I’m quite a goody-goody, and I don’t break the rules that often. When I do, though, it feels kind of good and gives me a kick. The best example is when I run a red light on my bicycle […] Visit Live Life On Your Terms With Swatch’s New No Rules Collection to read the full article.
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This is the IWC Ingenieur Automatic 42 Ceramic IW338903 in full black ceramic. IWC may well change their name to International Watch Ceramacists at this point, because they’re getting pretty deft at making amazing w...
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