Inside watchmaking’s most surprising collaboration, the Swatch and Audemars Piguet Royal Pop

Watch out, Carnaby Street! In March 2022, Swatch’s first collaboration with Omega, the MoonSwatch, saw police called to restore order after Swatch’s Carnaby Street, London store was mobbed on opening. The ‘Bioceramic’ Swatch version of Omega’s Speedmaster, powered by a robot-built Sistem51 automatic movement, was an instant sell-out globally.

Some two million examples have been sold since, and the collaboration was followed up by a partnership with Blancpain. The Scuba Fifty Fathoms, released the following year, was a slower-burning success. Both watches have proved fun to wear – Swatch exudes horological credibility without being too serious.

ncpain. The Scuba Fifty Fathoms, released the following year, was a slower-burning success. Both watches have proved fun to wear – Swatch exudes horological credibility without being too serious.

So when Swatch started to tease a new collaboration on Instagram and TikTok just over a week ago, and the typography was unmistakably Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, interest was more than piqued. The word ‘Pop’ (the oversized Swatch from the 1980s that you could pop into different straps) in the teaser had most people assuming some version of the Royal Oak Overseas, and possibly a pocket watch element. They were half right.

Going on sale on 16 May 2026, the Royal Pop is a sideways advance on the previous collaborations – this is not a plastic Royal Oak. It’s inspired by Genta’s design language for the Royal Oak but is not a copy, bringing it to younger generations in a surprising format, the world of charms and wearable accessories, 'a complete new way to wear time' as Swatch put it.

Royal Pop is a transformable pocket watch that can be worn around the neck, clipped onto bags, displayed as a desk clock (Swatch will offer desk stands) or carried in your pocket. Notably there are no wrist straps on sale as yet, though anyone with access to a 3D printer can create their own instantly.

The design cues are unmistakably Royal Oak, from the octagonal bezel and screws to the geometric Petite Tapisserie pattern on the dial and the typography. The execution, however, is all Swatch, in terms of bright colours and cutesy multilingual names for the eight variations. Six are time-only, and two have a small-seconds subdial. They also vary by crown (the time-only designs are Lépine-style, with the crown at 12, and the small-seconds are Savonette, with the crown at 3).

The format means that automatic winding is less useful, so Swatch has gone for a hand-wound version of Sistem51, with the state of wind being visible through openings in the spring barrel on the reverse – if you can see the grey spring coils, it’s time to wind.

The clever thing is that the watches work as designs in themselves. They are a way of bringing new audiences to watchmaking (always the point of Swatch), all without detracting from the Royal Oak’s status as a grail watch.

Royal Pop prices are £335 for the time-only models and £350 for the small seconds versions. Launching from selected swatch stores on 16 May and available to pre-order at swatch.com