Swatch-mania is spreading, queues all over the world for the latest watch

Thousands of people lined up for days outside shops Swatch from all over the world to grab the last one pocket watch of the Swiss company: the Royal Pop. Images of kilometre-long queues in front of store windows have gone viral online, from London to Osaka, from New York to Singapore.

There was such a crush that some shopping centers were forced to close. It happened in Dubai in two malls. And there Swatch had to lower the shutters at all outlets across the UK, the BBC reported, “for safety reasons”.

The collaboration with Audemars Piguet

Il Royal Pop was born from the collaboration with the much more exclusive Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguetas a popular remake of the historical (and much more expensive) Royal Oak.

It is inspired by pop-art and the Swatch collections of the 1980s, and is available in eight variations, each in two different styles – Lepine or Savonnette – with a stainless steel case bioceramica material patented by Swatch “composed of two thirds of high quality ceramic and one third of material of biological origin derived from castor oil”, as stated on the company website.

Prices and online resale

The list price varies from 385 to 400 euros depending on the colors, but online the prices have skyrocketed to over a thousand. Again according to the BBC, it would also reach 20 thousand euros for the box set with the complete series.

Demand exceeds supply

And it doesn’t mean that the race has ended here since the requests have far exceeded the offers. “We are doing our utmost to satisfy demand and we hope that all fans of this collaboration will soon be able to get their hands on one of these watches”, assured the company. Swatch his X.