Swatch Royal Pop watch frenzy causes global pandemonium and resale gold rush

Police deployed tear gas in Paris, a fistfight erupted in Milan, and all-night queues snaked around Swatch stores in London, Singapore, and New York. These scenes unfolded as the latest example of "drop culture" swept the globe, where status symbols and potential resale value ignite consumer frenzy.

At the centre of the chaos was Swatch, a company no stranger to retail outbreaks, which urged calm. The Swiss watchmaker stated on Monday that there is no shortage of its Royal Pop pocket watch, a collaboration with Audemars Piguet’s luxury timepieces.

The "bioceramic" timekeeper retails for approximately $400, but its resale value quickly soared into the thousands.

By Monday, the brightly coloured watches were proliferating on eBay, with one listing boasting: "IN HAND!!! Swatch x AP Royal Pop," for 3,055.58 British pounds ($4,092.31) "or Best Offer."

The new Royal Pop watches by Swatch and Audemars Piguet, at the Swatch Drive-Thru Store next to Swatch headquarters in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, Saturday, May 16, 2026. Anthony Anex/Keystone via AP

This marked the latest eruption in a generation-long consumerist frenzy, both online and in physical stores, that has affected brands from Nike to Apple. People are increasingly racing to keep pace with buying trends and the potential for lucrative resales.

"It looks like people got crazy to get a Royal Pop to make money through resale, not because they are fans of the Swatch," said Pierre-Yves Donze, a business history professor at Osaka University Graduate School of Economics. "People want money, especially. Royal Pop is not like a cool product, but a way to make easy money."

Professor Donze noted this shift from previous product drops, where social media amplified demand, but consumers genuinely desired the items for their collections.

Swatch did not respond to queries about its products being resold significantly above retail price. However, in a statement to The Associated Press, the company attributed the issues to high demand and retail organisation.

It said that in about 20 of Swatch’s 220 stores worldwide where the Royal Pop launched, "challenges arose on launch day because the queues of interested customers were exceptionally long and the organization of some shopping malls was not sufficient to handle this level of turnout."

The Royal Pop has garnered over 11 billion views on social media since its launch, according to the statement. The company drew parallels to the MoonSwatch launch in March 2022, a collaboration with sister company Omega, which also saw masked crowds rushing to stores from Singapore to Sydney.

Swatch boasts more than four decades of experience in generating hype. In 1984, it famously suspended a 13-ton yellow Swatch from a building in Frankfurt, Germany, around the time its innovative, mass-produced, and affordable timekeepers became a global phenomenon.

This past weekend, the Swatch store on London’s Carnaby Street again drew a lengthy queue ahead of the Royal Pop release. A crowd of several dozen blocked the pavement outside the Oxford Street store on Sunday, just before opening.

Police subsequently closed all Swatch stores in London and several other UK cities. Similar scenes were reported globally, with shuttered stores in the Netherlands and a "mosh pit" atmosphere in New York's Times Square.

In France, police used tear gas grenades and spray to disperse crowds outside Swatch boutiques. Officers deployed gas grenades at the Westfield Parly 2 shopping mall west of Paris, where riot police were seen outside the closed store.

Swiss police officers secure the area where customers queue to buy the new Royal Pop watch by Swatch and Audemars Piguet, in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, May 16, 2026. Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP

A gas grenade was also used in Lyon when a crowd ignored dispersal warnings, while municipal police in Montpellier used tear gas spray. Swatch France later posted on Instagram that its stores in half a dozen French locations were closed "because of public security considerations."

The company has since issued a statement reassuring customers that the Royal Pop will be available for months. The pocket watch was launched exclusively in retail stores and not online – a move critics deemed risky, given the significant resale profits at stake. Sporadic injuries, arrests, and property damage were reported.

Many companies now consider the liability risk of such hype too high. "A lot of the streetwear drops and sneaker drops that used to happen when I was younger, all of them have moved online because of safety concerns," said Odunayo Ojo, a London-based fashion and cultural critic, on his YouTube channel, Fashion Roadman.

He suggested Swatch either "didn't get the memo," underestimated the product's draw, or strategically hyped the drop to boost sales. "Swatch already has a track record of understanding how these things go," Ojo added.

By Monday, the queues had dissipated, perhaps because, as onlookers near a Paris Swatch store noted, there were no Royal Pop watches left. New shipments, they heard, were on the way.