This article was first published on The Financial Times by Polly Hopkins, Managing Director, UK, on 12 June 2026.
Polly Hopkins
Managing Director, UK
Regarding Mercedes Ruehl’s piece “Fights overshadow Swatch ‘Royal Pop’ launch” (Report, May 19). The launch day may have been shrouded in uncertainty and fights but it’s too soon to say that the scenes will be “detrimental to both brands”.
Swatch and Audemars Piguet went into the launch with a scarcity game plan, and one that, for the most part, has been successfully tested by luxury brands for decades. In a market where everything is available online in seconds, the queue has become the premium signal.
For brands, restricting supply, forcing footfall and letting the queue do the marketing for free is now the go-to to create hype. For customers, it’s an exclusive moment, designed to make the product feel earned, engineered as proof that you were there when it happened: a timestamp of your cultural relevance and understanding, not just a timepiece to be worn. And, in some regards, this strategy played out at the launch.
No brand wants to be associated with fist fights and tear gas, but when it comes to the “bigger backlash”, what are the repercussions on the horizon? The product was cleverly designed to achieve a bigger goal. A pocket watch at £320 doesn’t compete with a Royal Oak wristwatch at £40,000, but it does give Audemars Piguet permission to speak to a new audience without angering the collectors who have spent serious money on the original. It’s not a cheaper Royal Oak.It’s a different object entirely, with genuine shared DNA between both brands that opens the doors for Audemars Piguet to reach Swatch’s market and Swatch the luxury Audemars Piguet connection.
When it comes to public perceptions, will we see a boycott of the pocket watch when it drops online? No. Will we see traditional customers of Audemars Piguet turn away from the brand? No. Will we see customers of Swatch be put off potential future collaborations? No.
Is there a lesson to be learnt when it comes to safeguarding these launches? Of course.
Compromised safety and police wouldn’t have been the headlines the brands were bargaining for, but in the world of social media the line between cultural phenomenon and controversy is thinner than most marketing teams plan for. If brands such as American Eagle and Pepsi can weather the court of public opinion, so can Swatch and Audemars Piguet. The product will remain valuable because of what it was designed to represent, and the chaos of the launch will probably fade into memory. Meaning that, in the long run, the scarcity strategy paid off.
