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Designer art toys like Pop Mart’s Labubu took over the accessory game last year. While their popularity has declined massively, they’re still dangling from luxury handbags, belt loops, and backpacks everywhere. Now, the Swiss watch industry might be trying to tap into that exact same energy. While Swatch has officially confirmed its collaboration with Audemars Piguet (dropping this Saturday, May 16, 2026) clues suggest the “Royal Pop” might not be a traditional wristwatch at all. No, it could be a massive pivot toward the collectible streetwear market, arriving right when traditional watchmaking needs a lifeline.
To understand why a fiercely independent brand like Audemars Piguet would even consider this, you have to look at the pressure on the entry-level watch market. According to the latest Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Study, demand is fragile, with 43% of industry executives holding a negative outlook for their main export markets. Much of this squeeze comes from tech wearables, with a global average of 30% of consumers currently wearing smartwatches. That means for the average buyer, the wrist is now permanently occupied by step counters and notifications, meaning a basic analog watch struggles to compete with this utility.
But while the traditional watch market softened over the past 12 months, the designer toy market went nuclear, and Swatch’s marketing team would have been paying close attention. Global search data between May 2025 and May 2026 (the window when Swatch and AP would have been finalising their strategy) shows an explosion in Labubu interest. Searches for “labubu doll” grew 60% year-over-year, while specific drops drove even wilder hype, with queries for rare releases, like the “big into energy labubu” surging 250% and “stitch labubu” skyrocketing an incredible 750%. Faced with a tough wrist real estate market, Swatch might have realised their best bet is to abandon the wrist altogether and become the ultimate hype accessory for the rest of the outfit.
Data Behind a Likely Pivot
The data from the Deloitte study highlights another key behavioural shift that supports this accessory theory. When Millennials buy a watch today, they’re increasingly driven by a desire to “reward oneself” (23%) and to “look good” (20%). Telling the time is a secondary concern, and something that the Swiss watch industry needs to claim back before it’s too late.
Swatch’s teaser campaign for the “Royal Pop” leans heavily into this aesthetic focus, dropping hints about a revival of the ’90s “Pop Swatch.” Promo materials have shown glimpses of coloured necklaces, leather loops, and popping mechanisms. This has sparked a growing theory that the Royal Pop is a modular accessory, a watch head designed to pop out of its case to be clipped to a carabiner, worn on a lanyard, or attached to a bag.
But don’t let the playful form factor fool you as this is shaping up to be a fancy, highly hyped, and technically interesting watch. Swatch didn’t put a basic battery-powered quartz movement inside, the Royal Pop is expected to be fully automatic, and we expect it to house a groundbreaking movement with a peripheral rotor. The rumoured “SISTEM49” movement as we’re terming it would keep the watch incredibly thin and mimic AP’s high-end Calibre 8100. It’s the ultimate streetwear flex as a modular toy on the outside, but packed with high-horology mechanics on the inside to maintain the Audemars Piguet brand.
Protecting the Holy Trinity Brand
Beyond capturing the streetwear market, pivoting away from a traditional wristwatch offers Audemars Piguet a massive strategic benefit: protecting their heritage.
The genius of the Royal Oak lies in its immaculate finishing and untouchable prestige. Translating that exact silhouette into a plastic, sub-$1,000 watch meant for hypebeasts is incredibly risky, and it invites direct comparison to the real thing and risks trivialising the icon in the eyes of elite collectors.
However, if the “Royal Pop” is a bag charm, a toy, or a pendant as we expect it to be, AP sidesteps that danger completely. If it’s a playful accessory that isn’t trying to replace or imitate a $60,000 luxury timepiece it exists in a totally different category, and allows them to democratise the brand and educate a younger generation without cheapening the actual wristwatch experience. It’s the perfect marketing strategy.
Enter the Mystery Box
If Swatch is genuinely pulling from the designer toy playbook, it’s entirely possible that we could see them use the ultimate hype driver: the blind box.
Part of what made the Pop Mart craze so infectious is the gamble. You’re not buying a specific toy, but a sealed box with the hope to pull a rare variant. Given the overlapping “O” and “P” in the Royal Pop teaser typography, Swatch could theoretically package these modular watch-charms in sealed boxes.
Could you imagine lining up outside a Swatch boutique, paying your money, and not knowing if you just pulled a standard bioceramic model or a rare “chaser” colour way. It would send the secondary market through the roof, and generate interest far beyond the reaches of the watch industry.
The Release Date
We know that Audemars Piguet guards its brand heavily, so this collaboration is already a massive leap compared to Swatch’s internal projects with Omega and Blancpain. But former AP CEO François-Henry Bennahmias has been on the record praising the MoonSwatch for educating a new generation about watch icons. With the traditional market softening, our theory is that this education is simply moving off the wrist entirely.
Drop Details:
- Release date: May 16, 2026
- Availability: Likely to be in-store ONLY at select Swatch boutiques
- Expected price: AUD$600
The battle against the smartwatch might be on-going, but the race to create the ultimate collectible accessory could just be starting.
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