A Detailed Look At The Swatch x Audemars Piguet Pocket That Social Media Still Promises To Flex
Swatch and Audemars Piguet finally unveiled their highly anticipated Royal Pop collaboration, surprising fans with eight colorful pocket watches.
Black News 
Everyone’s new favorite affordable luxury timepiece via the Audemars Piguet and Swatch collaboration has finally been unveiled.
Only the colorful, plastic APs won’t be proudly wrapped around the wrist of the common man… because the release will be a pocket watch.
That’s right, all the hype from social media came to a screeching halt as AP and Swatch announced an innovative way to reintroduce pocket watches to modern watch fans, with the release on May 16.
“Eight unique pocket watches made for endless creative styling,” reads Swatch’s Instagram caption. “Two Swiss icons. One collection that rewrites the rules of watchmaking. This is the Royal Pop Collection, a groundbreaking union of Audemars Piguet’s iconic Royal Oak and Swatch’s POP watches from the 1980s.”
Two things all the AI mockups got right were that there’d be colorful options and that the AP’s octagonal Royal Oak model would be honored.
Swatch is showing off eight different pops of color to choose from with two small distinctions. There’s the Lépine-style pocket watch; in the Otto Rosso, Huit Blanc, Green Eight, Blaue Acht, Orenji Hachi, and Ocho Negro colorways, where the winding crown is at 12 o’clock, equipped with just two hands.
The Savonnette-style pocket watch is dressed in Lan Ba and Otg Roz colorways, with the winding crown at the three o’clock position and a seconds-counting subdial.
There’s the more plain black option with an eye-popping white bezel, and a completely white one, save for rainbow screws on the face. Pink, green, and blue also get some tonal shine, with varying shades of light or dark wrapped around the top of the face.
The standouts are the rich bluish-purple hue with orange detailing, as well as the Easter-flavored one with a pink housing, a matching subdial, a yellow bezel, and a turquoise face. All eight options come with a matching lanyard.
The price is still unknown, but with Audemars not using one of their movements and instead using a trusty Swatch one, the cost shouldn’t hurt pockets.
“At the core of this collection is another world first: a brand-new version of our signature SISTEM51 movement, reimagined as a hand-wound caliber and finished with a dash of Pop Art,” the Instagram caption continues. “And to top it all off the watches are available in one of two unique styles: Lépine and Savonnette. Available as of May 16, at selected Swatch stores worldwide.”
Take a look at the entire collection below and see fans’ reactions to getting an old-school timepiece instead of a typical wristwatch.
