{"id":38840,"date":"2026-05-17T00:11:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/38840\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T00:11:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:11:35","slug":"inside-the-chaos-of-londons-audemars-piguet-x-swatch-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/38840\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the chaos of London\u2019s Audemars Piguet x Swatch drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Friday night on Carnaby Street, Soho, and everyone\u2019s partying like it\u2019s 1886. Well, not quite \u2013 the uncharacteristically chilly May evening air is perfumed with spliff smoke, dancehall is pumping from a portable PA, and the crowd is coddled in Supreme<\/a> beanies and Nike<\/a> balaclavas. But when, over the last century and change, have people lost their shit over pocket watches as much as they have this week?<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Freddie Payne<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Freddie Payne<\/p>\n

The Royal Pop<\/a>, Audemars Piguet<\/a> x Swatch<\/a>\u2019s internet-breaking twist on the five-figure (at least) AP Royal Oak, costs a mere \u00a3335 at retail. And at least a hundred people are preparing to bed down for the night in tents for a chance to buy one \u2013 every customer can only get one \u2013 when the Swatch shop opens tomorrow morning. \u201cNot gonna lie, this might as well be Carnival,\u201d a guy filming the scene says to his mates.<\/p>\n

James, who\u2019s been here since 6.30pm on Thursday, is sprawled on a camping chair and nursing a small bottle of Captain Morgan. He\u2019s a proper watch guy, with a silver Casio<\/a> G-Shock on his wrist to prove it, but is looking to resell his Royal Pop. \u201cI\u2019ll probably buy it [again for myself] in a few months when it\u2019s accessible,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a piece of watch history.\u201d Most of the campers are resellers, which isn\u2019t surprising given the aftermarket prices being thrown around: anywhere between \u00a31,000 to \u00a32,000. \u201cThe resale value for this watch is going to be off the chain,\u201d says Amele, a Hatton Garden jeweller, who arrived at 2pm this afternoon. \u201cMy market of [customers] want the watch early. So that\u2019s why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Freddie Payne<\/p>\n

Despite the marketing promo about wearing the Royal Pop from your belt or your bag with a lanyard, what most people want to do is fit them to the aftermarket wrist straps already being put into production. Piers, a teenager with diamonds studs below a central-casting Zoomer haircut, says similar. The Audemars Piguet branding is \u201cwhat people are here for\u201d, he adds \u2013 though the MoonSwatch<\/a> launched in 2022 with its own boatload of hype, AP is a name on a different level to Omega<\/a> entirely. Daniel, a rare non-reseller, reckons that \u201cwhat got many people hyped was the AI versions\u201d of the collab that pinged across social media before the watches themselves were unveiled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Friday night on Carnaby Street, Soho, and everyone\u2019s partying like it\u2019s 1886. Well, not quite \u2013 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[19916,27,19917,19811,13850],"class_list":["post-38840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-audemars-piguet","tag-london","tag-no-homepage","tag-swatch","tag-watches"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116587022384628249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}