In March 2022, people were queuing hard to bag an Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch. And 18 months later, as a new MoonSwatch Moonshine Gold is released – a Mission to Neptune, another in a sequence of subtle drops which uses Omega’s 18-karat yellow gold alloy on the seconds hand – the lines are still unrelenting.
Ed Sheeran has braced the queue, Tom Hanks waited patiently, Daniel Craig managed to nab himself one, and Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom got his and hers pieces – so anyone who thought this would just be a phase, it's clear there's still a lot of love for the Omega x Swatch partnership.
From the offset, Swatch made it known that models would not be available to purchase online, nor would they be limited editions, so getting your hands on one of these babies has been a real test of time and patience. Case in point: I rang all UK Swatch stores supposedly stocking models this week and didn't make it through to the stores once. It took me almost seven months to get my hands on the Mission to the Sun, and that was only by chance when a friend was passing through an airport and spotted it.
Their scarcity in select boutiques worldwide has only added to the hype. “MoonSwatch is an absolute hit,” shares Nick Hayek, CEO of the Swatch Group. “The global demand for the MoonSwatch has not only continued unabated, but it has even accelerated, to which the MoonSwatch Moonshine Gold has certainly contributed. The creativity on the seconds hand is unique, as is the way we produce it only during a full moon. People now know that the full moon has a special name every month – Strawberry, Flower, Pink etc.
“Despite additional Swatch stores and greatly-increased production since the launch 16 months ago, daily demand still far exceeds available products. Consumers don’t always find exactly what they want,” adds Hayek.
Consumer frustration is a large part of the noise around the Omega x Swatch partnership, particularly from those still struggling to get their hands on the first drop, as the pair have since continued to produce new iterations that modify the seconds hand only in correlation with the lunar calendar. For watch editor and expert Barbara Palumbo – who's managed to score three MoonSwatches since their release – the partnership got off to a strong start. “I thought it was beyond brilliant from a marketing and money-generating standpoint. How could anyone not? For every person who may have wanted an Omega Speedmaster but couldn't bring themselves to spend the cash, this was a sort of cheeky alternative.”
But does the collaboration carry the same gravitas with its latest fine-drawn releases? “I haven't paid a ton of attention to the ‘add-on’ releases because I don't think it's as interesting to simply change materials for hands or markers on a watch that already exists,” she continues. “While I understood the hype initially with the original releases, for me, the secondary releases have fallen flat."
That said, Palumbo believes Swatch Group will be able to ride this wave for a while as long as they do it the right way. “Building excitement is key," she adds, "and making the watches affordable is also key, even if they're not always attainable.”
For those leaving the queues with empty hands and sad faces, online marketplaces such as Chrono24 have provided a solution – for a surcharge in the resale market. “Sales have run pretty much analogously – [it’s been] very stable since the launch. The median price of what the watches have sold for has stabilised over time,” notes Chrono24 CEO, Tim Stracke. According to their data, the MoonSwatch typically sells close to 30 per cent above its retail price, but with the fluttering of releases this year, it seems the MoonSwatch is still proving immovable from people’s wishlists. “The demand sees peaks with news of new releases – for example, the 2023 peak demand, to date, came in March 2023, when they unveiled the new Mission to Moonshine Gold. But since then the demand has stabilised and remains pretty consistent.” No doubt that is set to change now the new 'Blue Moon' is on the market.
Could people's impatience with product supply mean we're overlooking the genius in this year's more subtle variants? Perhaps, argues George Shalhub, founder of Avant Garde. “It’s important that Swatch releases a lot [of iterations]. Their goal is about getting people into the brand. And how do you do that? With variety. It’s what we need to get people interested.” There’s a greater purpose at play here, particularly behind the partnership’s full-moon philosophy when producing the newer Moonshine models.
“It’s not always about big changes, but getting people to wear watches again,” Shalhub continues. “I think that’s what Nick Hayek was trying to do with this collaboration, to replicate the [success] of Swatch in the ’80s and have people wearing watches on their wrists. This collaboration leverages the opportunity for people to have Omega on the dial and get people excited about watches again.
“He’s steering the market away from Apple Watches and gearing the younger generation up for the luxury sector. They could release a Swatch x Seamaster tomorrow and probably make another million sales easily. But the question is, should they do that? I think they’ve already completed their mission: to get people wearing Swiss watches.”
Whether you love them, hate them, crave one or own the entire solar system, perhaps the biggest point we’re forgetting in all of this fanfare is that for better or worse, from aficionados to newbies across the globe, the Omega x Swatch collaboration has people talking about watches again. The Mission is only just beginning.
