There is great anticipation for the new Royal Pop, the timepiece that combines the DNA of the Royal Oak with the revolution of POP models. Worldwide launch on Saturday.
It’s like a short circuit, which resets the rules of time. The timepiece market has been warned, on Saturday 16 May AP×Swatch will be unveiled, the collaboration that unites Audemars Piguet and Swatch for Royal Pop, a synthesis between the timeless reference, Royal Oak, signature model since 1972, and the POP models of the Eighties. A move, which the Haye family must have thought about with great care. The project, in fact, arrives four years after the global success of MoonSwatch: the Speedmaster revisited by Omega, which, according to the Swatch Group’s 2022 Key Figures, published in January 2023 and the only data available in this regard, has sold over one million pieces. It is therefore normal that there is a lot of hype about the new drop. But let’s go back to Royal Pop. The collection consists of eight Swiss-made Bioceramic models, powered by the innovative SISTEM51 movement, Swatch’s flagship, now available in a new hand-wound version with 15 active patents. SISTEM51 represents a true industry innovation, as it is the only Swiss-made mechanical movement in the world whose assembly is 100% automated. And it is no coincidence that there are eight models because this number constantly recurs throughout the history of the project: the shape is an octagon; There are also eight screws for the characteristic bezel of the Royal Oak and just as many additional patents relating to the structure of the case, given that the original one is complex and combines the rounded octagon, the circle and the barrel shape. The extra detail? Royal Pop does not have a strap according to the canonical idea, it is distributed with a leather cord to be worn in different ways, even as a pocket watch. To date, there are thousands of views on Instagram of the preview videos with collectors and resellers who have been camping outside the New York boutique for days. It is not yet on sale, but Royal Pop has already unleashed creativity online with companies ready to develop, some have already done so, an infinite number of compatible gadgets starting from the strap to transform the pocket watch into a wrist model. Not only on eBay, just to name one platform, it is possible pre-purchase the timepiece from sellers who guarantee their presence when the shops open on Saturday. Prices start from 900 euros and up, when the recommended price is 400 euros for the Savonnette style and 385 euros for the Lépine style. Royal Pop will be available in a selected number of stores, including in Italy Milan and Rome, but also Florence and Venice, just look at the Swatch website to find all the addresses.
