Swatch Royal Pop Review: A Bold Pocket Watch Collaboration

Introduction

The Swatch Royal Pop has finally arrived. After months of teasers, renderings, and speculation, the collaboration between Swatch and Audemars Piguet is here. This release has transcended the watch world and become a pop culture topic in its own right. Here is everything you need to know about the new Royal Pop.

The original Pops watch was first launched by Swatch in 1986. It was more of a pocket watch or wearable watch, allowing the wearer to fix it to almost anything. You could also pop it onto a strap if you preferred. While the Pop Swatch helped put Swatch on the map in the 80s, it fell out of favor for some years before returning in 2022. By coincidence or not, the Royal Pop is landing exactly 40 years after that first release.

Background of the Collaboration

This is not the first collaboration from Swatch. In 2022, the groundbreaking Moon Swatch brought Omega and Swatch together, creating a nearly one-to-one recreation in bioceramic of the classic Speedmaster Moonwatch. Just one year later, Swatch collaborated with another Swatch Group brand, Blancpain, on the Scuba Fifty Fathoms. Again, a nearly one-to-one recreation in 42 millimeters of the iconic dive watch.

The difference between the Moon Swatch and the Scuba Fifty Fathoms is notable. The Moon Swatch utilized a quartz movement, battery powered, while the Scuba Fifty Fathoms used Swatch’s System 51 movement, a hermetically sealed movement held together by a single screw.

For the last three years, enthusiasts have wondered what Swatch would do next. Would it be the Seamaster? Would it be Hamilton? Could it be Tissot? While all of those are exciting in their own way, there were reports that Swatch was looking outside the group for its next collaboration. It was quite possible that Audemars Piguet might have been in the mix. It was hard to believe at the time, but now the watch has finally arrived.

Design and Colorways

In total, there are eight variations of the Royal Pop. That number is significant. Think about the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and its octagonal bezel. There are eight variations playing off the notion of the eight-sided bezel on the AP Royal Oak, a classic design.

The colorways include a pink case with a cherry bezel and cherry crown, a white case and bezel with a pop art motif featuring colorful screws around the bezel and on the markers and hands, a contrasting green option, a lime green and light blue option, a navy and orange option, a contrasting light and dark blue case, a black and white almost monochromatic motif, and a pink, yellow, and turquoise option.

Not all eight are the same. Six are quite similar and are called the Lépine style pocket watch. These are time only, with two hands for hour and minute, and the crown positioned at 12 o’clock. The other two options are in a Savonette style pocket watch case with the crown at 3 o’clock. This version is available in the pink, turquoise, and yellow configuration as well as the contrasting light blue and darker blue configuration.

Each of the watches comes attached to a calfskin lanyard with contrasting stitching. While the teasers might have suggested a rope lanyard, Swatch has gone upscale with the calfskin motif.

Leine vs Savonet Styles

The differences between the Lépine and the Savonette style watches are worth understanding. The Lépine watches have a traditional hour and minute hand configuration, and that is it. The crown is located at 12 o’clock. The dials on the Royal Pop bring the full tapisserie pattern from the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak directly onto this Swatch version. It has the hands, the markers, the bezel, and even the crown knurling. In terms of the case itself, it feels and looks like a Royal Oak, except for the fact that it is not on a bracelet.

The Savonette style watches feature a subsidiary seconds sub dial and the crown at 3 o’clock. When the watch is clipped in, you are looking at it from a 90 degree angle, so it is not something you look at head-on. From a legibility and readability perspective, the Lépine iteration with just the standard hour and minute hand display looks the most like the classic Royal Oak.

However, the splashiest colorway with the pink, the yellow, and the turquoise dial in the Savonette collection is likely to be one of the most popular, if not the hardest to get, similar to the Neptune or Mars iterations of the original Moon Swatch.

Movement and Specifications

The Royal Pop continues the use of the System 51 movement, but elevates it. This is the first System 51 ever to utilize a hand winding caliber. Swatch now has a manual winding movement in a pocket watch in collaboration with Audemars Piguet. It includes 15 active patents and a 90 hour power reserve. It has an anti-magnetic Nivocron balance spring and offers an exhibition case back giving a partial view of the movement, but also a view of the Royal Pop text.

The watch is called the Royal Pop for two reasons. One, it pays homage to the Pops watch. Two, it pays direct homage to pop art. Think about Andy Warhol, for example. The boxes of these watches stationed in Swatch stores around the world display that motif front and center.

There are some really interesting tidbits that add a premium feel to this watch that you do not see on the Scuba Fifty Fathoms or the Moonwatch. The exhibition case back gives a full view of the movement and its pop art decoration and the hand-wound System 51. The movement has a power reserve indicator that lets you know when you can see the coils in the mainspring that the watch needs to be wound. All of that is protected by an exhibition sapphire crystal. On a bioceramic Swatch collaboration, there is a sapphire crystal, not just on the back, but on the front as well. These premium touches were likely influenced by Audemars Piguet in the process of designing this watch.

In all of the iterations from the Lépine to the Savonette, you have a 40mm case diameter without being clipped into the lanyard case. When mounted on the clip, the dimensions change to 44.2 mm x 53.2 mm. Each of the watches has a case thickness of 8.4 mm. The hands and markers all have a blue emitting Super-LumiNova painted on them. The tapisserie dials all have the AP Swatch collab logo at 12 o’clock and the Royal Pop logo near 6 o’clock.

Water resistance across the board is two bars, which is effectively 20 meters. This watch is not getting wet, nor should you get it wet. Do not be surprised if you get water in your Royal Pop.

Buying Advice

The Royal Pop pays an accurate homage to the Royal Oak. The octagonal bezel, the screws on the bezel, the tapisserie pattern on the dial, the hands, the markers, the logos, the crown, it is all there. Updating the System 51 movement, which already is a significant advancement in watchmaking at the price, is pretty remarkable.

The watch starts at $400 for the Lépine and $420 for the Savonette. This is another release from Swatch that transcends watch culture and enters pop culture writ large. People across the board, inside and outside the watch world, are talking about this watch and will certainly be lining around the block at Swatch locations in the US and around the world.

Conclusion

The Swatch Royal Pop is a distinctive release that breaks new ground for Swatch in its collaboration with brands outside of the Swatch Group. While there is certainly some disappointment that this is a pocket watch effectively on a lanyard rather than a wristwatch, it still speaks to the innovation and cultural relevance that Swatch continues to deliver. Whether you are a watch collector or simply someone who appreciates bold design, the Royal Pop is a conversation piece worth considering.