AI Has Guaranteed the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Watch. China Will Make It Happen.

Infused with signature Royal Oak design elements, including the octagonal case, eight-screw bezel, and Petite Tapisserie-patterned dial, the strapless model draws heavily from the 1979 Royal Oak Pocket Watch reference 5691. Nestled within is a brand new hand-wound variant of Swatch’s Sistem51 caliber, a movement that is fully machine assembled. Swatch holds 15 active patents for this innovative iteration and boasts an impressive 90-hour power reserve. Furthermore, it features an antimagnetic Nivachron balance spring co-developed with Audemars Piguet.

The 1986 POP line from Swatch, known for its watch heads that could be physically ejected from their frames, has influenced the design here, allowing the Royal Pops to easily pop out of their bioceramic holder clips as well.

Why There’s No Wristwatch

The rationale behind the pocket watch design approved by Audemars Piguet, which remains independent from the Swatch Group unlike Omega, is to avoid disrupting its established high-net-worth customer base. Owners of Royal Oak models can breathe easier, knowing that their treasured pieces won’t be replicated at a fraction of the cost.

That said, AP wouldn’t have faced financial fallout had it produced what the public clearly desired. Omega, initially apprehensive about its sales after unveiling the MoonSwatch internal prototypes, experienced a substantial 50 percent increase in sales following the launch of its affordable counterpart.

Cleverly, the Royal Pop pocket watch is a strategic move aimed at generating maximum hype while safeguarding AP’s brand integrity. The Royal Oak design ethos is distinct, yet wristwatches are off the table. Collaborating with Swatch, Audemars crafted something tangible for its aspirational followers; it simply didn’t deliver what they anticipated.

What’s in it for Swatch? Along with valuable PR, there’s the potential for a significant sales boost. In 2025, the group reported a 6.75 percent decline in sales and a staggering 55.6 percent drop in operating profit, largely owing to a steep decline in demand for its watches in China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Swatch Group investors are not pleased.

How China Will Come to the Rescue

This is where the narrative becomes intriguing for reasons neither Swatch nor AP anticipated. As Swatch reintroduced its POP design, enabling the Royal Pop to detach from its housing, third-party strap brands quickly capitalized on the opportunity, aiming to swiftly create adaptations that transform the timepiece from pocket to wristwatch. Designed to snap in and out of lanyards and desk stands, Royal Pops should seamlessly attach to bracelets and straps made specifically for them.

The market instantly recognized that the pocket watch from Swatch and AP contained everything structurally necessary to produce the very wristwatch that the AI concepts had foretold. All that remains is a solution to connect the case to a wrist.