Everyone, and I mean everyone, was talking about the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop collab over the past week. Even my father, who would probably struggle to name three watch brands, texted me on Saturday to ask, “What’s up with this Swatch watch?”
However you feel about the Royal Pop and its decidedly chaotic release, and there are a lot of varying opinions out there, there’s no denying that it significantly boosted the name recognition of Audemars Piguet, a brand highly regarded in horological and luxury circles but less of a known commodity among the general public.
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Now, less than a week after the Royal Pop’s headline-dominating launch, AP is already going back to the collaboration well for its next watch release. And while the brand’s new collaboration still incorporates some elements of hype culture, I don’t think we’ll be seeing swarms of people congregating outside AP boutiques trying to be the first in line to get one.
Seeing red
AP’s new collab is with Yoon and Verbal, the husband-and-wife cofounders of Japanese streetwear/jewelry label Ambush. Far from a mass-appeal object like the Royal Pop, the new collab is much more in line with what we expect from AP: niche to the worlds of luxury fashion and streetwear, and experimental from a watchmaking viewpoint.
The collab is a member of the Royal Oak Concept family, a more avant-garde and contemporary reimagining of AP’s classic sports watch that frequently acts as a canvas for the brand’s bolder horological experiments, like its previous collaborations with Marvel.
