For the past week, the watch world on Instagram has been abuzz with what appeared to be leaked images of a vibrant new collaboration. Vivid plastic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak wristwatches, splashed in bright hues of navy, orange, pink, yellow, and green, dominated feeds. Captions speculated on prices and launch queues, while comment sections passionately debated favorite colors.
There was just one catch: none of it was real. Every single image causing the frenzy was entirely AI-generated, setting a fascinating new precedent for pre-launch hype in the luxury market.
The AI-Fueled Hype Machine
When Swatch and Audemars Piguet officially confirmed their “Royal Pop” collaboration on May 8th, the teaser campaign intentionally left enough ambiguity for the online community to fill in the blanks. This ambiguity, combined with the power of modern AI image generators, resulted in a week-long hype cycle built not on the actual product, but on a convincing digital simulacrum.
The real Royal Pop collection dropped ahead of schedule, possibly forced by the sheer volume of fake images circulating. While the actual product proved genuinely different and interesting, a significant portion of the audience, having fallen for the AI fakes, was left feeling profoundly disappointed.
This situation marks a new challenge for brands. When the groundbreaking MoonSwatch launched with Omega in 2022, publicly available AI tools capable of flooding the internet with photorealistic watch variations from simple prompts simply didn’t exist. Even more recent collaborations, like the Snoopy “Cold Moon,” didn’t elicit the social media frenzy and false expectations that the Royal Pop endured.
Chris Hall, founder of The Fourth Wheel Substack, notes that pre-launch hype has become an enormously valuable part of the marketing process. “Today’s audience is even more clued-in than it was four years ago,” Hall explains, making it incredibly difficult for the real product to surpass expectations when the world has already generated its own ideal version.
The Royal Pop: A Clever Sidestep
Swatch tried to manage expectations by first teasing lanyards, clearly signaling that this was a pocket watch, not a wristwatch. However, once the first few vibrant plastic Royal Oak AI images hit Instagram, complete with plastic bracelets mirroring the iconic AP design, the algorithm took over.
Thousands reposted these AI-generated wristwatch Royal Pops, while others began designing their own, all equally convincing and entirely unreal, largely ignoring the subtle lanyard clue. The dream for watch fans was clear: a hyper-accurate, low-budget version of an iconic high-end wristwatch that typically sells for over $20,000, and no official tease to the contrary was going to be welcome.
Disappointment aside, the actual Royal Pop Collection is a legitimately interesting proposition. It features a set of eight pocket watches made from Swatch’s innovative bioceramic composite, available in two classic styles: Lépine (crown at 12) and Savonnette (crown at 3, with a small seconds subdial at 6).
Priced at $400 and $420 respectively, these pieces are laden with iconic Royal Oak design cues. Most notably, they feature the unmistakable octagonal case, eight-screw bezel, and the signature Petite Tapisserie-patterned dial, directly referencing the 1979 Royal Oak Pocket Watch reference 5691.
Inside, an entirely new hand-wound version of Swatch’s Sistem51 caliber powers the watch, a movement uniquely assembled by machines. Swatch holds 15 active patents on this new iteration, which also boasts an impressive 90-hour power reserve and an antimagnetic Nivachron balance spring—incidentally, a component co-developed with Audemars Piguet.
The collection also revives Swatch’s 1986 POP line, whose watches allowed their heads to be ejected from their frames and clipped elsewhere. This design enables the Royal Pops to literally ‘pop’ out of their bioceramic holder clips, adding a playful and versatile element.
The simple logic behind the pocket watch design, authorized by Audemars Piguet (which, unlike Omega, is not part of the Swatch Group), is to avoid upsetting its existing high-net-worth customer base. Royal Oak owners can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing a budget wristwatch version of their coveted piece won’t be flooding the market for a few hundred dollars.
Yet, this doesn’t mean AP would have suffered financially. Omega, initially concerned about sales with the MoonSwatch, saw a substantial 50 percent bump in sales following its budget cousin’s release. The Royal Pop pocket watch is a clever sidestep, designed to generate maximum hype while being as safe as possible for AP’s prestigious brand. The Royal Oak design language is unmistakable, but the wrist remains off-limits for now.
The Unexpected Reality: From Pocket to Wrist
What does Swatch gain from this? Valuable PR, certainly, but more importantly, the potential for a much-needed sales hit. The Swatch Group posted a 6.75 percent drop in sales and a staggering 55.6 percent decline in operating profit in 2025, primarily due to flagging demand in crucial Asian markets.
Here’s where the story gets even more interesting, in ways neither Swatch nor AP could have fully planned. Because Swatch resurrected its POP design, allowing the Royal Pop watch head to be removed from its housing, third-party strap brands immediately saw an opportunity. Within hours of the Royal Pop announcement, these companies began conceptualizing adaptations to convert the timepiece from a pocket watch into a wristwatch.
Since Royal Pops were designed to snap into lanyards and desk stands, they should just as easily clip into specially made bracelets and straps. The market recognized in real time that this pocket watch from Swatch and AP contained all the structural elements needed to deliver the very wristwatch the AI concepts had promised. All that was missing was a way to connect the case to a wrist.
Brands are already announcing their concepts to fill this wristwatch-shaped void. Singapore-based Delugs was among the first, posting concept designs on Instagram and creating a waitlist for what they’re calling “Project WristPop.” Founder and CEO Kenneth Kuan confirmed that their production team has been asked to give it top priority, targeting a release well before the end of 2026.
“We want to be the ones who get out the product that’s actually worth your money,” Kuan states, acknowledging the race to market. Delugs plans a complete case-strap system, not just a strap, as the Royal Pop’s case isn’t designed for a direct strap attachment. This system will include both a case interface and an attached rubber strap, designed to feel like a natural extension of the watch.
Within just 24 hours of the reveal, distributors were asking to carry Delugs straps, and customers wanted to put down deposits on a concept. While other brands plan their own integrated bracelets or strap solutions, China is expected to move the fastest. Alibaba and Temu vendors could realistically produce injection-molded or machined adapters and matching straps within weeks of the May 16th launch, albeit with varying quality.
Paul Midler, author of *Poorly Made in China*, is confident we’ll see Chinese modifications for the Royal Pop imminently. He explains that injection molding, silicone, and CNC machining are all well within the capabilities of Chinese producers, who move with incredible speed. From obtaining specifications, working prototypes could be available in a couple of weeks, with online listings following in under a month.
Aaron Alpeter, CEO of supply chain specialist Izba Group, concurs, stating he’d be surprised if a strap system isn’t already in development. He recounts a decade-old meeting where a Taiwanese exporter already had the specs for a new iPhone from a Chinese factory contact, designing cases and screen protectors to launch the same day Apple announced their phone.
Alpeter suggests that the best thing Swatch could do is “give the people what they want and own this design.” He foresees a large ecosystem of knockoffs for those who desire the look without the brand name. The MoonSwatch had the good fortune to be evaluated on its own terms in 2022, arriving as a genuine surprise with Swatch in full control of its imagery.
The Royal Pop, however, landed in a world that had already decided what it was. The actual product must now contend for attention against a phantom that will soon be made real by companies entirely outside the influence of Swatch and Audemars Piguet. AI generated the expectation, and Chinese manufacturing will fulfill it.
Ultimately, the pocket watch that Swatch and Audemars Piguet spent years secretly developing may be best remembered as the ingenious chassis for a $15 wrist adapter from Shenzhen. This adapter will finally make good on the promise of the colorful plastic Royal Oaks everyone wanted, bridging the gap between expectation and reality.
Queues are already forming outside Swatch stores. Only time will tell if collectors are lining up for the innovative pocket watch itself, or for the parts that will allow them to transform it into the AI-imagined wristwatch.
Source: Wired – AI
