On May 16th, people queued outside Swatch boutiques across the region for a bioceramic pocket watch retailing between RM1,720 and RM1,840. By evening, the same piece was listing on Carousell and Chrono24 at five times that figure.
Two weeks later, those premiums have settled to two to three times retail — and they are still moving in one direction. Not collapsing — but moving in a direction that should give pause to anyone still considering buying above retail, and prompt honest reflection for anyone who already did.
We think the Royal Pop is a genuinely interesting object. We also think the reasoning behind a lot of those secondary market purchases deserves examination — before the next collaboration drops and the same pattern repeats.
Caption : AP x Swatch Royal Pop Dial Closeup (Source : Swatch)
The Launch, Without the Mythology
The Royal Pop is a modular bioceramic watch module — 40mm in diameter, 8.4mm thick — designed primarily as a pocket watch or lanyard piece, with a wrist housing likely coming later. It runs on the Sistem51, Swatch's fully sealed automatic calibre, in a manual-wind configuration that is new for the platform. Eight colorways. Two crown configurations. In-store only, on launch day.
The queues were genuine. The interest was genuine. The secondary market spike was also genuine — for about a week.
What is worth examining is the comparison that every buyer in that queue was, consciously or not, making: the MoonSwatch. That launch in March 2022 spiked to 5-10x retail within 24 hours. Some colorways still command a small premium today. Others are now at or below retail. The Royal Pop, at 2-3x and cooling inside a fortnight, is on a materially different trajectory — and the people holding those premiums should be thinking clearly about who their next buyer is.
Caption : Sistem51 on the Royal Pop. (Source: Audemars Piguet)
The Sistem51 Reality
The Royal Pop runs on a non-serviceable movement. The Sistem51 is a sealed calibre — it cannot be opened, cleaned, or regulated by a conventional watchmaker. When it reaches the end of its service life, the module is replaced, not repaired. That is Swatch Group's own position.
This is not a dealbreaker for every buyer. If you are purchasing the Royal Pop as a design object, a brand token, or a conversation piece, longevity is secondary to what it represents. The quartz MoonSwatch, for that matter, is probably the more durable buy — fewer moving parts, a battery you can replace, a movement with a meaningfully longer practical lifespan.
Where the non-serviceability matters is for the buyer who sees the Royal Pop as an entry into mechanical watch collecting. The Sistem51 is mechanical in the sense that it has a rotor and a balance wheel. It is not mechanical in the sense that matters to a collector — a movement you can have serviced, regulated, and worn for the next thirty years. Those are different things.
Caption : Royal Oak Pocket Watch ref 5697 (Source : Audemars Piguet)
Why AP Said Yes
Audemars Piguet is not a Swatch Group brand. Omega did the MoonSwatch because Swatch Group told them to. AP chose this. That distinction is worth sitting with.
The Royal Oak 15500ST, steel on bracelet, is the most accessible Royal Oak in the current lineup. In Malaysia's pre-owned market it trades well into six figures. The AP name is everywhere — in music, in culture, in the vocabulary of a generation that grew up hearing it — and the watch itself is categorically out of reach for most of that audience.
The Royal Pop is how AP enters that conversation at scale. At under RM2,000, a 25-year-old who has never owned a mechanical watch and may never own a Royal Oak can carry the octagonal case on a lanyard and feel a genuine connection with the AP aesthetic. That relationship — built early, built at low cost, built through a product that carries real brand equity — is worth considerably more to AP than whatever royalty arrangement underpins the deal.
This is brand infrastructure, not product strategy. AP is not trying to sell watches at scale. They are trying to own a demographic that would otherwise age out of their reach entirely. The Royal Pop is the vehicle for that. Understanding its purpose clarifies what you are actually buying when you buy one.
The Right Entry Into Mechanical Collecting
If the Royal Pop sparked a genuine interest in mechanical watches, that interest deserves a better starting point.
At around the Royal Pop's retail price, the Seiko Presage range offers a legitimate automatic movement, real finishing quality for the price, and a collector community that has existed for decades. Seiko movements are serviceable — a qualified watchmaker can maintain one for the next thirty years. That is a categorically different ownership proposition to the Sistem51, at the same price point.
Caption : Tudor Royal Silver 38mm 28500 - Listing Here
Take the money you would spend on a Royal Pop at secondary market rates — roughly RM3,500 to RM5,500 — and the pre-owned market opens considerably further. A pre-owned Tudor Royal, or even a Tudor Black Bay, puts Swiss Made movements in your hands: movements that can be regulated, serviced every five to seven years, and worn daily without a depreciation clock running from the moment you buy. These are not compromise watches. They are the kind of pieces that form the foundation of a collection.
If it is specifically the AP aesthetic you are drawn to — the angular case, the integrated bracelet, the sporty geometry — we would say this plainly: the imitations are not worth buying, and the real thing is worth saving for. A pre-owned Royal Oak from a trusted dealer, bought with patience and discipline, will outlast any collaboration piece and hold its value in a way the Royal Pop almost certainly will not. The wait is the point.
What the Market Is Actually Showing You
The Royal Pop launch was a success for AP and Swatch. The secondary market cooldown is not a failure — it is the market finding its level, which is what markets do.
For AP, the collaboration achieved exactly what it needed to. The queues were photographed. The name trended. A generation of people who knew AP only as a reference in music now recognise the Royal Oak silhouette and carry an emotional connection to it. That result does not require the secondary market to hold.
For the buyer who paid 2-3x retail in the first week: the exit is narrowing and the direction is clear. The question worth sitting with is not whether the Royal Pop is an interesting object. It is whether it was the right purchase, for the right reasons, at the right price.
Bought at retail, with clear eyes: a legitimate brand object and a fair entry into the AP world. Bought at a premium, as a speculative hold: the MoonSwatch data does not support the confidence that required.
When you're ready to make your first mechanical purchase with intention, our pre-owned collection is a good place to start.
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