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Swatch closed stores worldwide as demand for its Audemars Piguet collaboration overwhelmed some boutiques.The Swiss watchmaker released eight pocket watches with Audemars Piguet on Saturday, May 16, modeled after the Royal Oak, which typically starts at about $30,000. Swatch's new item with Audemars Piguet, the Royal Pops, is priced at around $400.They are available only at Swatch stores, leading to long lines at stores after the announcement and chaos at boutiques on release day. Swatch announced global store closures over security concerns and urged customers not to rush to stores."The Royal Pop will remain available for several months," the watchmaker shared on Facebook.Videos circulating on social media showed large and aggressive crowds at stores, and at least one person was arrested in New York City, according to The New York Times. 19 stores closed in the United States.USA TODAY reached out to the Swatch Group to confirm how many stores were closed worldwide.What led to the Royal Pop?The Royal Pop follows in the footsteps of previous Swatch collaborations with Omega and Blancpain to produce bioceramic interpretations of the Speedmaster, dubbed the MoonSwatch, and the Fifty Fathoms, respectively.It is the first Swatch collaboration with a brand outside of the Swatch Group umbrella.The MoonSwatch's largely colorful reinterpretation of the Omega tentpole model was a hit, causing similar frenzy upon its store-only release in 2022 and selling over 1 million watches in less than a year, according to Bloomberg.Danny Milton, vice president of content for watch website Teddy Baldassarre and former managing editor of the watch magazine Hodinkee, told USA TODAY that the MoonSwatch served as an entry point for some in the watch-collecting hobby."Much of this is anecdotal, but I think that the MoonSwatch took a lot of the wrist share of the Apple Watch and took people from that market into a place where: a, you get to make a style statement, because there's such a slew of options when it comes to color; b, there's a certain heritage to that Moonwatch design in the MoonSwatch," Milton said.He suggested that the distinctive colorways that were successful in the Omega collaboration influenced the designs of Royal Pop, adding that there is no version of the new release that directly resembles the Gerald Genta masterpiece."The two most popular watches that came out of that collaboration were the Neptune edition, which was a bright blue, which was made even more popular when Daniel Craig wore it in public with a tuxedo, and the Mars edition, which was a bright red watch," Milton said. "The ones that looked closer to a Speedmaster didn't have as much play and I think what you're seeing from the Royal Pop is that there really isn't one of these out of all of the eight that stands to represent 'this is about as closest to a Royal Oak as we're going to give you.'"The watches come in two styles — a Lépine-style with the crown positioned at 12 o'clock and two hands, offered in six colorways; and a Savonnette-style with the crown at 3 o'clock, and a sub-second register at 6 o'clock in two colorways.Watch collectors had anticipated the collaboration to result in a wristwatch, and watch accessory companies, such as Helvetus and Delugs, have announced plans to offer straps to allow the watches to be worn on the wrist.But Milton said the pocket watch's broad appeal amplified Royal Pop’s cultural impact in the days leading up to its May 13 reveal."Everybody's been talking about the fact that you can put this on a bag, you can, you can wear it however you want to wear it," Milton said
