After Omega, “Moonswatch” follows a luxury brand: Swatch becomes the next watch classic

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More than a year later, people are still lining up: The success of “Moonswatch”, the collaboration between Swatch and Omega, has been uninterrupted. And this despite the fact that a new model is released every month. By the end of 2022, Swatch had already sold over one million copies. The Biel watch group does not want to share more recent sales figures yet. But production continues to increase every month.

The successful concept will now be expanded to include another luxury brand from its ranks: five models from the new collaboration will be unveiled on September 9, as Swatch and watchmaker Blancpain announced on Sunday. They are named after the five oceans of the world.

Therefore, these are expected to be available in limited numbers in Swatch stores worldwide soon. In the past, this procedure has earned Swatch great respect and high share prices, but has also drawn criticism: The company is regularly accused of deliberately reducing the availability of “lunar watches”.

Any other excitement?

It is not yet known what exactly the new watches will look like. According to the American men’s magazine “GQ”, their color should be determined by different types of sea snails. The logo in the advertisement image also gives a very important clue: its contours resemble the Blancpain classic “Fifty Fathoms” (“fifty fathoms”) crown. The legendary diver’s watch, which first appeared in 1953, got its name from being water resistant to a depth of 50 sea fathoms (91.45 meters).

This means that Swatch can stick to the line of modeling collaboration watches over the luxury brand’s most famous model. On Omega, for example, this was the Speedmaster, which was part of Apollo’s missions to the moon.

But whether this excitement will be of the same magnitude as “Moonswatch” is still doubtful. Because while Omega has a large collector and fan base and is also known by the public thanks to its sponsorship deals, the Blancpain brand is going deeper into the luxury segment.

Nick Hayek slammed into open doors

But for the brand itself, this is a great opportunity. With the Swatch series, Blancpain was able to reach “ordinary mortals” who could not afford to buy a luxury watch that cost tens of thousands of francs. According to “GQ,” Swatch boss Nick Hayek (68) rushed straight to open doors with the project with his nephew and Blancpain boss Marc Hayek (52). Things were different at Omega when the collaboration began: CEO Raynald Aeschlimann (53) was clearly more skeptical of the idea of ​​a cheap Speedmaster.

For Swatch, the expansion of luxury partnerships goes hand in hand with its strategy of selling most of its watches in its own stores. This became even more important when rival Rolex recently acquired the Lucerne-based family business, Bucherer, one of the world’s largest watch sellers.

Source :Blick