Swatch watches are not known to be luxury or even high-end type of watches. However, in the last few days we have seen images and videos of hundreds of people lining up in front of their stores waiting to buy one of the recently launched Moonswatches. So, what happened? Why are we suddenly seeing lines in front of a Swatch store that we would typically see in front of a Chanel, Louis Vuitton or Apple store?
Swatch recently collaborated with Omega to create and launch the Moonswatch, a watch that looks very similar to Omega’s Speedmaster – a watch that became famous for being worn during space missions like Apollo 11. Plenty of people wanted to get their hands on a watch that sells for around $250 per piece compared to the thousands of dollars that you need to pay for the Omega Speedmaster. While the collection in itself is not limited in numbers, each Swatch store had only a certain number of watches in-store. As the social media hype kicked-off, a frenzy to get one of the remaining items began. People were even looking to quickly flip the watches online. Prices on various online auction sites skyrocketed to over $10,000 which is more than you would need to pay for a real Omega Speedmaster.
You can find all available Moonswatch watches here. There are 11 different designs, each of which is based on our solar system. The most popular appears to be the “Mission to the Moon”. Unlike the other, more colorful watches of the collection, this one is designed in a simple, yet elegant black. It remains to be seen how long this hype is going to last or if Swatch can capitalize on it to reinvigorate their brand.
Images courtesy of Swatch
