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‘It was like a mosh pit’: Swatch closes stores as watch launch causes crowding and scuffles
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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I've been lurking in various watch-related forums right before this release, and all the drama leading up to this has been hilarious:
FYI: this "watch" is a collab between a brand (swatch) that makes <$100 disposable watches (the watch movement is sealed such that you can't repair/maintain it) and a brand (AP) that makes $30k watches with a long waiting list. The collab was announced first, then the specs of the watch, then the actual watch itself (being on a keychain?). Each round of announcements led to a new wave of drama.
The best part: nobody is actually interested in the watch. It's almost all scalpers and people owning a $30k watch having a meltdown.
Edit: if you are looking for a <$400 mechanical watch that is worth the money, I recommend the Seiko 5 or Orient Bambino instead of this plastic toy. Learn to regulate and maintain it by yourself, it's easier than it looks. My Max Bill runs at a rate of +0.5s per day after regulation. Watching a fully mechanical minute hand sweep (as well as the date flicking over instantly at midnight) is such a joy.
I always love how there's someone who knows about these things more than me, because I always want to know more but don't have time to know everything myself.
Thank you for the details on the drama. It is hilarious from the sidelines.
Speaking of maintaining watches, I was on the fence on buying this starter kit to help me maintain my set of watches (replace batteries/clean my watches) and avoid the garbage that is on sites like amazon. Do you have any other recommendations on watch kits (trying to keep my budget below $150 AUD)?
Nothing about that looks like it's worth more than the cheap kits you find on Amazon. There's really nothing special about that kit.
Depends on how far you want to go with the maintenance, buy a good caseback opener, a movement holder, a good set of watchmaker screwdrivers, some good tweezers, hand setter, and a good magnifier. If you want to full service with washing and lubricating and reluming etc, you'll start going to specialty stores but you'd be far down the hobby at that point and you'll come across the right sellers in your research.
I don't actually have a dedicated kit of stuff for watches, but what I use for fountain pen maintenance + iFixIt toolkit gets me 90% of the way there. Other than that, it's just specific screwdriver bits and a watch case back opener.
Who's buying them from the scalpers then?
God this world is so fucked.
Same thing happened a couple years ago when swatch partnered with Omega to release a quartz "MoonSwatch", designed to look like a Speedmaster Moonwatch.
Lines were insane, it was sold out everywhere and eBay was flooded with them at insane prices.
There were some people that wanted a $300 "Omega", a handful of actual Omega fans/owners who understood the novelty of it and actually wanted it, but the majority of sales went to scalpers and people who don't know anything about watches that thought they were buying an investment.
It's not a limited production, and you can now find it in pretty much all swatch boutiques just sitting and begging to be bought.
Mostly scalpers and FOMO buyers, that's who buy it at launch.
The same idiots who bought NFTs probably.
At least the moon swatch thing with omega looked nice. Though if I remember right they were really crummy workmanship and looked pretty shoddy when actually released or something
This design doesnt even look all that compelling to me 😅
Someone claimed the following, quote "my 8 year old would love this on her backpack, if she had $400 to spend".
Pretty accurate description I'd say.