The MoonSwatch was only the beginning. At least, that’s what Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek Jr. seems to suggest when quoted in a recent Bloomberg article. When conceiving the MoonSwatch, he also commissioned Swatchified versions of the iconic Omega Seamaster and Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms watches.
The possibilities are intriguing, but what’s even more tantalizing? A mysterious “mock-up of a Swatch collaboration with a ‘very high-end’ outside brand” (i.e., non-Swatch Group) which Mr. Hayek doesn’t disclose. The mind goes straight to hype watches like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus, but it’s anyone’s guess as to what Swatch is cooking up.
Based on the Omega Speedmaster chronograph issued to NASA astronauts, the MoonSwatch excited fans like little else in 2022. It features Omega branding on the dial and a design closely based on the very watch that went to the moon in 1969 — but for $260 instead of the circa $6,000 starting price of the modern, mechanical version of it. The MoonSwatch runs on a quartz movement and is produced in Swatch’s plastic-ceramic composite material called Bioceramic.
Initial controversy and skepticism that Omega’s luxury name would be damaged by placing it on a cheap, plastic watch have been rebutted by the MoonSwatch’s success: Not only in its popularity such that supply of the watches can’t keep pace with demand — but also that the hype over it has significantly boosted sales both of (non-MoonSwatch) Swatch watches as well as of the original Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch luxury watches, according to another Bloomberg article.
Why not try to replicate that success with other iconic watch collaborations?
Will there be more Swatch collab watches?
So far, there’s no indication that other homage watches are actively in the works, but Time & Tide quotes Hayek that “there could be another collaboration.” The existence of prototypes based on other luxury watches from within the Swatch Group’s stable of brands shows that they were contemplated at the company — and that juices the watch fan’s imagination.
It seems that the Omega Seamaster and Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms were originally considered alongside the Omega Speedmaster when the project that became the MoonSwatch was in development. Whether or not the brand initially planned to release more such homages, the MoonSwatch’s success might prompt Swatch to expand on the concept.
The MoonSwatch is a tough act to follow, though, so whatever comes next will have to be carefully considered from a marketing strategy perspective. As long as the MoonSwatch hype remains in high gear, any other such homages might only dilute its appeal. When hype dies down, however, even a Swatch watch based on watches without quite the Speedmaster’s iconic status might get a boost from the MoonSwatch phenomenon.
