Crowds of watch collectors and eager shoppers descended on Swatch stores across the UK today as the launch of the new Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop Collection sparked huge queues and forced multiple branches to close, including in Cardiff.
Swatch confirmed it had shut stores in London “in light of safety considerations for both our customers and our staff” as overwhelming demand for the limited edition watches caused disruption in several cities.
A notice posted to Instagram by the brand read: “In light of safety considerations for both our customers and our staff, CARDIFF store will be closed for the day. Thank you for your understanding.”
Branches in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield also remained closed throughout the day, with South Wales Police confirming one person had been arrested in Cardiff.
Photos from Cardiff showed hundreds of people gathered outside the Swatch store at St David’s Shopping Centre, with some fans reportedly queueing since midday on Thursday ahead of the Friday morning launch.
The excitement surrounded the release of the new Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop Collection, a collaboration between the Swiss watchmaker and luxury brand Audemars Piguet.
The collection features eight limited edition pocket watches inspired by Audemars Piguet’s iconic Royal Oak design and Swatch’s colourful POP watches from the 1980s. Prices started from £335, but several watches quickly appeared on resale sites online for more than £1,000 within hours of launch.
Swatch described the collection as “a groundbreaking union” between the two brands, combining classic luxury watch design with pop art inspired styling.
At the centre of the release is a newly developed version of Swatch’s SISTEM51 movement, redesigned as a hand wound calibre for the first time. The watches are available in two styles, Lépine and Savonnette.
The company said the collection would only be available at selected Swatch stores worldwide from May 16.
Today’s scenes are reminiscent of previous high profile Swatch launches, which have regularly attracted large crowds, long queues and rapid sell-outs as collectors rush to secure limited edition pieces before they disappear.
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