Swatch Audemars Piguet

"for the craic"

What craic?

"The low price"

Relative to an ap?

People are queuing and the watch is not for sale for another 3 days? That's crazy. Very few people in their right mind in the western world would spend 3 days and nights to make a potential / optimistic few hundred quid at most. I guess just some hard core influencers / instagrammers left? 😂

Except it is not fake. It is real. Do I think it cheapens the AP brand, like it cheapened the Blancpain and Omega brands? Yes I do. Interesting that this time it wasn't just the $$$$$Swatch group trying to and successfully making a fortune with the highest margin watch in history. This time independent AP is voluntarily participating and the proceeds kinda go to charity

Not sure how AP thinks this will be good for their brand. Things that bad? Are they desperate for attention?

No not fake (at least in the strict sense of the word), AP has authorised it, but fake in the sense that it is an old and storied brand selling out their heritage for, what? I'm not sure. I can't see what AP gets out of it - it's not like lots of the people buying these will get the itch to step up to a €60k Royal Oak because they like the aesthetic. You mentioned Omega and Blancpain, I think this is worse, as AP would have been at a much higher average price point than either of those brands, so has much further to fall. This smacks to me of Jaguar rebrand levels of audience deafness.

An AP colab? I wonder which of the many famous AP designs will they go with?

All of them have the number 8 and the main colour of either the bezel or the case in the name. Looks like the Romanian one is wrongly spelled though interestingly enough. It is oct not otg

Might have a look in the boutique if I'm in town at the weekend. If either that one or the other one with the small seconds hand and the crown at 3 o'clock is available and there are no massive queues

Those ads are bullshit anyway, all over eBay since the day the watches were announced. Nobody has these watches for sale. It is based on the premise that the seller will queue up and get some on Saturday (or has kids doing that for him), which he will then immediately ship. I'm surprised eBay allows this…

Edit: here it is on adverts 😀

https://www.adverts.ie/casual/swatch-x-ap-royal-pop/40152051

As always, personally I don't mind that sort of thing at all. Someone takes a risk, thinks there is demand. Probably offers a bunch of kids €100 each if they can score one for him. And lots of lazy / rich people who don't want to queue themselves and don't mind paying a few hundred over list. Way of the world. All good. Capitalism is still the best working system for the overwhelming majority of people of a population…

Low ball- it's worth double that.😆

Any signs of queuing on Grafton Street tonight for one tomorrow?

So any actual photos of the release yet?

This is the dumbest product on the watch/clock market since hodinkee travel clock.

Take this with a grain of salt as my tongue is in cheek but.....

I think that's a highly optimistic take on overpaying many (many) times the production cost of a plastic watch with a load of hype attached. It reduces the hobby from watches to quick fashion and disposable marketing.

The second the hype evaporates the owners left with the horological equivalent of e waste, fast food or a cold sore from doing bold things to the wrong people. There's no pride of ownership or likely even longevity or wearability to it. It's return on investment is limited only to how long it's hyped. There is zero intrinsic value.