Audemars Piguet has never licensed the Royal Oak silhouette to anyone in the watch’s 54-year history. On May 16, 2026, that changes. Swatch Group has announced its first-ever collaboration with a rival watchmaker, teaming up with ultra high-end competitor Audemars Piguet to create the Royal Pop, a collection of eight bioceramic pocket watches that carry the Royal Oak’s DNA into entirely new territory. For the watch world, this is not just a product launch. It is a precedent.
What the Royal Pop Actually Is
Royal Pop draws its design language from two separate icons: Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, drawn by Gérald Genta in 1972, and Swatch’s POP watches of the 1980s. The result is eight pocket watches in two case styles, Lépine and Savonnette, built in bioceramic and powered by a new hand-wound version of Swatch’s SISTEM51 movement, featuring 15 active patents, over 90 hours of power reserve, and a Nivachron balance spring. The Royal Oak’s signatures are all present: the octagonal bezel, eight hexagonal screws, and Petite Tapisserie dial pattern, but rendered in bold Pop Art colours that feel nothing like the original. That tension is the entire point.
The watches are designed to be worn in multiple ways, around the neck on a calfskin lanyard, clipped to a bag, kept in a pocket, or used as a desk object. It is a timepiece that has deliberately stepped off the wrist and into the broader world of personal style.
Why It Lands
Audemars Piguet will use 100% of its proceeds from the collaboration to fund a dedicated initiative supporting the preservation and transmission of watchmaking savoir-faire, with a focus on rare skills and the next generation of horological talent. That detail gives the Royal Pop a purpose beyond the hype. People were already camping outside Swatch boutiques in New York five days before the launch. Priced at around $400, it is the most accessible piece of Royal Oak heritage ever made, and proof that two brands at opposite ends of the market can build something neither could have made alone.
Available exclusively in selected Swatch stores from May 16, 2026. One watch per person, per store, per day.
