A highly anticipated limited-edition watch collaboration has sparked chaotic scenes across the globe, forcing Swiss watch giant Swatch to close all its participating retail locations across the United Kingdom over public safety concerns. The unprecedented demand for the new Royal Pop pocket watch, created in partnership with luxury Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet, drew hundreds of eager collectors and fans to Swatch stores over the weekend, leading to overcrowding, reported aggression, and widespread store closures.
The collaboration, which launched eight distinct watch models priced at an accessible £335, was billed by Swatch as a disruptive, groundbreaking partnership between two iconic Swiss watchmaking brands. Drawing inspiration from the mid-20th century Pop Art movement, the collection is described by the company as a fusion of joyful, bold aesthetic and high-end fine watchmaking craft. However, the extreme accessibility of the price point, paired with the limited production run, created a feeding frenzy among watch enthusiasts and resellers alike. Within days of the launch announcement, resold examples of the Royal Pop watch were already listed on secondary online marketplaces for as much as £16,000 – a nearly 4,700% markup from the original retail price.
In the UK, the scale of demand caught many by surprise. On Saturday morning, hundreds of people queued outside Swatch’s Liverpool One location on Paradise Street, with some committed fans camping out for two full days to secure a spot near the front of the line. By 7 a.m. BST, Merseyside Police received reports of a group of men acting aggressively and making threats toward other shoppers in the queue. Officers quickly responded to the scene, and the crowd dispersed shortly after the intervention.
Following the incident, and citing growing safety risks for both customers and staff, Swatch announced it would keep all of its participating UK branches – including locations in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield – closed for the duration of the launch. The brand has not yet announced when or if the stores will reopen for sales of the limited collection.
The chaos unfolding in the UK is not an isolated incident. Watch enthusiasts around the world have been lining up for days, even weeks, to get their hands on one of the limited watches. In New York, fans camped outside a Swatch store for a full week, with local reports noting that several people experienced health issues during the prolonged wait in public. Queues also formed outside the brand’s Tokyo location, its global headquarters in Biel, Switzerland, and the Dubai Mall launch event in the United Arab Emirates was ultimately cancelled due to the unexpectedly massive turnout of hopeful buyers.
BBC News has reached out to Swatch for additional comment on the store closures and future plans for the collection, and has not yet received a response.