Police break up chaos at Swatch and Audemars Piguet watch launches
Police fired tear gas, fights broke out and stores closed as Swatch’s Royal Pop watch launch turned a $400 release into a cross-border scramble.
Crowds surged overnight for Swatch’s Royal Pop watch, turning a $400-to-$420 collaboration with Audemars Piguet into police calls, tear gas and store closures across Europe and New York City. The limited-edition release, sold on May 16, drew buyers who waited through the night and, in some cases, for days, hoping to get a watch that could quickly be flipped for far more than retail.
In the Paris region, police used tear gas to control about 300 people outside a Swatch shop, and a metal shutter and two security gates were damaged in the crush. In Milan, a fight broke out in front of a Swatch store at opening time. Near The Hague, police intervened after hundreds gathered at a store, while Swatch kept stores in Amsterdam and Utrecht closed as the lines and tempers grew.
The scene in New York was no calmer. At the Times Square Swatch store, opening-day pushing and shoving spilled into the line, and John McIntosh described the crowd as “a mosh pit.” Police were also called to break up fights between shoppers outside the limited-edition launch events in Milan and New York, underscoring how quickly a hyped retail drop can tip into a public-order problem when demand outruns supply.
The resale market helped fuel the frenzy. Some buyers were reportedly chasing watches priced in stores at roughly US$400 to US$420 because secondary-market listings reached as high as US$4,000, a markup that gave the release the economics of a speculative asset more than an accessory. That spread encouraged shoppers to camp out, crowd entrances and push for early access, turning a marketing event into a security challenge.
Swatch also closed stores in London and six other UK cities for safety reasons as the crowds spread. The pattern was clear: a mass-market brand joining forces with a luxury name can create scarcity on purpose, but scarcity at this scale shifts the burden onto police, store staff and city officials. What was sold as a collectible watch became a cross-border test of crowd control, with the real price paid in damaged property, closed stores and police intervention.
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