It's less than a week since the controversial launch of the RoyalPop, a surprising collaboration between Audemars Piguet and Swatch to make a pocket watch based on the famous Royal Oak wristwatch. This is a classic example of a modern product launch, with teasers coming first at the start of May, then confirmation of the leaks to prominent journalists, a huge amount of online speculation in traditional media and social media, and then a launch day designed to create queues, attention, and possibly, scandal and controversy.

I'll give my views on this AP x Swatch at the end of this Post.

Why do Watch Brands do collaborations?

The simplest reason is to expand their audience using the fame, influence or brand of the collaborator. When a relatively small High Horology brand collaborates with a Formula 1 Team and its drivers, this boosts the awareness of the brand, lends it the glamour of Formula 1 racing, and allows for interesting design ideas based on the colours of the team.

This also is what excites watch enthusiasts - taking a model they know and love, for example the Omega Speedmaster or the IWC Pilot, and then having it themed to match the relevant collaboration. For Omega, they produce watches for every Olympic Games, where we see regular colour and material changes on famous models, and IWC collaborate with The Little Prince. This is a famous children's story book about a kid who dreams of being a pilot. The whimsical designs of this book soften the stark military image of the IWC pilot's watches in a way their other collaborations don't (e.g. with Formula 1, Yacht racing, historic aircraft).

What makes a good collaboration?

Put simply, it's one that extends the watch's appeal to a new audience that is adjacent to the current audience. We see this with Casio G-Shock and Seiko Sports 5 collaborations, of which there are many every year. They look for interesting partners who have exactly the same demographic of buyer: young people looking for robust sporty watches under £300. They create an interesting design, make radical changes to the packaging, and sell a large Limited Edition of 5,000 or more units. This keeps it affordable and accessible and provides interest to long-time collectors of the brand as well as potentially attracting new buyers for the watch.

What makes a bad collaboration?

This is actually a tough question as to some extent it is based on personal taste and one's own view of the watch itself. Reactions are often bad when there is a large difference between the usual audience for the watch and that of the collaboration. We saw this with the collaborations between Audemars Piguet and Marvel for a watch based on the Black Panther movie and then a Spiderman movie. It baffled fans of the brand as it was seen as combining something with limited exclusive and high end production with mass market movies with no particular connection to time, watches or watchmaking. Superheroes don't wear watches! The are now nine different Spiderman movies! What's special about that? Even now, if you got and watch the Kevin Hart video released to promote the watch, he's ignorant about details about the film, talks about himself a lot, and it's totally unclear what he things about the watch or why we should care.

Audemars Piguet has an incredible history, a huge range of fantastic watches and a very popular icon of the watch world that is only sold on allocation. While brand expansion is a good idea, it wasn't at all clear what the Spiderman watch was doing that other than creating noise and news. It's notable that the Marvel collaboration has lasted for only two watches.

So is the SwatchPop different?

I would argue that it is a good collaboration. Firstly, Swatch have a great history of interesting collaborations with many kinds of organisation, and most recently ran two hugely successful collaborations with luxury watch brands that updated iconic models and made them affordable; Omega with the Moonswatch and Blancpain with the Scuba Fifty Fathoms. Secondly, they've created something new in Swatch style; a "Pocket Watch" format watch that can also be used as a bag tag in modern fashion, or used as a desk clock with an accessory stand. Using the Pop brand takes it back to a successful range Swatch launched in 1986. Audemars Piguet first made a Royal Oak style pocket watch in 1979 and sold 116 of them in 1980 and 1981. They then created more of them in the 1990s with different references and iterations.

Why is it right for Audemars Piguet this time? They know that the Royal Oak is an icon that many people can't afford. They want to further establish their name in watchmaking and they have a history of pocket watches. So does Swatch, as the first Pop was a huge 47mm across. They have a long history of colourful design in the Royal Oak and Swatch is famous for its use of colour. There are many areas of synergy. Making it a pocket watch that is quite large makes it less likely to be seen as a plastic version of the exclusive Royal Oak, and the wearable form factor appeals to a young customer base that is the core of Swatch's audience and that Audemars Piguet are specifically trying make aware of their brand.

Conclusion

It's too early to tell if this has really worked. Chaos at the store launches in many parts of the world gained them an enormous amount of publicity but has disgusted many watch enthusiasts.

The biggest impact this will have over time is to have Audemars Piguet seem like a much bigger brand than it is. This might have been the goal all along. Only making 55,000 watches a year and having no availability on your most iconic model is great for profits, but they need to preserve that for a long time into the future, and they aren't as well known in popular culture as Rolex, Omega, or Patek Philippe. Collaborations with an impact like this go a long way to changing that.