- Swatch and Audemars Piguet have confirmed an upcoming collaboration called the Royal Pop.
- This is the first time Swatch has collaborated with another watchmaker outside of the Swatch Group, while it’s also the first watchmaker collaboration for Audemars Piguet.
- The collaboration will be unveiled later this week on May 16.
If you’re even loosely interested in the world of watch collecting, there’s almost zero chance you haven’t seen that Swatch and Audemars Piguet are coming together to release a collaboration collection.
Off the back of the early teasers and more recent confirmation that the link-up was indeed official, social media has exploded with influencers using a little bit of imagination and a lot of AI image-generating tools to predict what the upcoming collaboration might look like.
Unfortunately, almost everyone has gotten it wrong. Why? Because they’ve most likely supplied the image generator with a picture of an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and an Omega x Swatch Moonswatch. Unsurprisingly, this has yielded countless versions of a colourful, bioceramic Royal Oak, which misses the mark for more than a couple of reasons.
The first is the most obvious: the name.
Royal Pop is a reference to Swatch’s famous Pop collection that was in production from the late 80s to the late 00s and allowed owners to literally pop the watch out of its strap and wear it somewhere other than the wrist. It could be worn as a pendant necklace, attached to a belt, looped around a backpack, or even as a desk clock.
In Swatch’s first two teaser videos on social media, the defining detail is the audible “click”, which suggests something directly inspired by the Pop collection.
If that wasn’t enough, the post confirming the collaboration (above) included a line in the caption that reads, “two Swiss icons come together to reimagine a completely new way to wear time,” which further suggests this divisive collaboration isn’t a straightforward wristwatch.
Next, let’s take a look at this teaser image shared by Monochrome Watches. By stripping back the contrast and increasing the brightness, we get a better idea of what the shape of the watch might be. There’s no visible strap, and other than the Royal Oak-inspired octagonal case, there’s a single row of integrated bracelet links that could suggest a fastening mechanism that attaches to a pendant strap.
The idea that the watch will be worn on some kind of pendant is also reinforced by the teaser shared by Swatch, which features a range of different coloured straps that taper down into a connecting point.
What else do we know?
In the confirmation post on social media, we see the assembly of Swatch’s only mechanical movement, the Sistem 51, which comprises just 51 components and is the first Swiss-made mechanical movement entirely assembled by machines.
What’s more, it doesn’t even appear to be the Sistem 51 we already know, but may instead be an updated version that’s hand-wound (and not automatic), has hacking seconds (the movement stops when you pull the crown out), and could even have just an hour and minute hand.
That last point could also underscore the idea that collaboration is a pocket watch, inspired by vintage examples from Audemars Piguet that almost always had two hands.
The most compelling possibility that I’ve seen so far is by Tim Wright, whose mock-ups suggest a Royal Oak-inspired case design that can be popped in and out of either pendant or wrist-worn outer cases.
Of course, none of this is confirmed, but at first glance, it’s a fun interpretation, consistent with the teaser, aligning with the suggestion that the new Audemars Piguet X Swatch collaboration could come with straps and an audible “click”. It’s also consistent with the history of Swatch’s Pop collection.
Finally, on a more speculative note, we found a post on X that suggested the timing of the collaboration between Swatch and Audemars Piguet could be linked to two recent legal cases in Japan and America, which the Swiss luxury brand ultimately lost.
Specifically in Japan, Audemars Piguet was seeking to trademark “a dial with tapisserie pattern and hour markers, minute track, date window, an octagonal bezel with 8 hexagonal screws, case, a crown, and a lug.”
Everyone thinks the AP x Swatch "Royal Pop" dropping May 16 is just AP chasing MoonSwatch hype.
— Aladeen | Timepiece Specialist AP BULL (@cryptoaladeen) May 9, 2026
Maybe. But the timing is interesting.
AP just lost trademark fights in Japan (2024) and the US (2025). The courts ruled the octagonal bezel and tapisserie dial aren't "distinctive… pic.twitter.com/NuebiZN5F0
The timing is indeed interesting, especially when you consider that Swatch applied for its Swiss trademark for the mark “Royal Pop” in early 2024, just before Audemars Piguet lost the first case in Japan. As far as a timeline of events, this is what we’ve got:
- January 15, 2024: Swatch files “Royal Pop” in Switzerland
- March 28, 2024: AP loses its Royal Oak design trademark appeal at Japan’s IP High Court
- June 18, 2024: Swatch files “Royal Pop” in the US
- December 17, 2024: “Royal Pop” registered in the US
- January 2, 2025: AP loses its Royal Oak design trademark at the US TTAB
- May 16, 2026: Royal Pop goes on sale
While the timing could be a coincidence, it’s certainly interesting that Swatch filed to trademark a future collaboration with Audemars Piguet based on the Royal Oak, just as Audemars Piguet was having IP struggles around its most iconic model.
The idea that “knockoffs are coming, and AP can’t really stop them,” seems a little far-fetched, but it does offer one possible answer to the question I had when I first heard about the collaboration: “What would Audemars Piguet get out of it?”
While Swatch returns to the spotlight for the first meaningful time since its white-hot collaboration with Omega, Audemars Piguet can capitalise on (and somewhat control) the democratisation of its most important design. Audemars Piguet cements itself as the cultural owner of the octagonal bezel design at every price point, crowds out any future imitators of its design, and is able to reach a new generation of collectors who likely already love the Royal Oak (but can’t afford it).
Using the link-up between Omega and Swatch as a benchmark, there’s almost no way this upcoming collaboration won’t be a massive success for both Swatch and Audemars Piguet. In 2022 (the year the MoonSwatch made its debut), the Swatch Group sold more than one million units, accounting for an estimated 20% of the group’s annual profit, as well as representing just under 1% of the entire Swiss watch industry (and 15.8% of the overall year-on-year growth).
Regardless of any legal issues or bad AI-generated renders, we’ll all get a front seat to exactly what the two watchmakers have been cooking up this week, when the collection drops on May 16.
If the Omega x Swatch Moonswatch release chaos was anything to go by, you probably want to start lining up now.
