Swatch and Audemars Piguet: hundreds of people queue up
Keystone-SDA
From Friday onwards, hundreds of people massed outside Swatch shops in Switzerland in the hope of being able to buy one of the new ‘Royal Pop’ watches on Saturday morning. Scuffles broke out in some places.
More than a thousand people gathered in Geneva, according to a Keystone-SDA news agency photographer on the scene. They were spread out over the surrounding streets. Police were on hand to manage the situation outside the shop.
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Several hundred people also converged on the “drive-thru” located near the Swatch Group’s headquarters in Biel/Bienne. In Zurich, around 400 people queued outside the Swatch shop early Saturday morning, according to a shop manager. Faced with the influx of customers, the store opened its doors earlier than planned.
According to several media reports, scuffles broke out in the queues, particularly in Basel and Lausanne. The police had to intervene. Given the turn of events, Swatch announced on Instagram that that its shops on Rue du Marché in Geneva, as well as those in Lausanne and Basel, will remain closed on Saturday “for reasons of public safety”.
A saleswoman shows the new Royal Pop watches by Swatch and Audemars Piguet to a customer, in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, May 16, 2026.
Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi
Swatch issued a message on its website asking customers to postpone their purchases for later to avoid overwhelming staff.
“To ensure the safety of both our customers and our staff in Swatch stores, we kindly ask you not to rush to our stores in large numbers to acquire this product. The Royal Pop Collection will remain available for several months,” the company stated.
In some countries/regions, queues of more than 50 people cannot be accepted, and sales may need to be paused, the watchmaker added.
Big demand abroad
Abroad, the sales launch also provoked tensions and scuffles, particularly in Milan and the United Kingdom, according to several media reports. Many shops had to be closed.
In France, a scuffle broke out in the Paris region. According to a police source, some 300 people who had turned up before the opening of the Swatch shop in the Westfield Parly 2 shopping centre were dispersed by police using tear gas on Saturday morning.
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A metal shutter and two security gates were damaged, and police officers and security guards were attacked. The sale was cancelled, but no date was given for its rescheduling, as “the security arrangements had been underestimated by the organisers”.
In Lille, at least four people plan to lodge a complaint, saying that they had been punched in the queue on Saturday morning, according to deputy mayor Maroin Al Dandachi. The city intends to take legal action against Swatch for “obstructing traffic on the public highway”. In Lyon, 250 people were dispersed without incident on Saturday due to overcrowding.
In Marseille, police intervened outside the Swatch shop midday on Saturday to ask queuing customers to disperse. The same thing happened in Bordeaux, where police had to intervene to disperse customers after the Royal Pop watches were sold out.
Brightly coloured watches
Royal Pop brings together two iconic timepieces: the very expensive Royal Oak by luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet and the more affordable Pop by Swatch, famous for its colours and modular design in the 1980s. The collaboration consists of eight brightly coloured pocket watches.
It went on sale on Saturday in a selection of boutiques with a purchase limit of one watch per person, per boutique per day. The price is set at between CHF350 and CHF375 depending on the model, but the watches are already selling for more than CHF4,000 on online resale sites, according to press reports.
Adapted from French by AI/ac
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