LONDON (AP) — In Paris, police deployed tear gas. In Milan, Italy, a fistfight erupted. In London, Singapore and New York, all-night queues snaked from the doors of Swatch stores — the latest examples of status-symbol “drop culture” to flash across the globe when status symbols and resale value collide. The company at the center of it all, Swatch, no stranger to over-the-top retail outbreaks, said it was time to chill. The Swiss watchmaker said Monday that there’s no shortage of its Royal Pop pocket watch, a collaboration with Audemars Piguet’s luxury timepieces. All for a “bioceramic” timekeeper that retails for around $400 — but perhaps more to the point, resells for thousands of dollars. By Monday, the candy-colored flex objects proliferated on eBay, with one boasting: “IN HAND!!! Swatch x AP Royal Pop,” for 3,055.58 British pounds ($4,092.31) “or Best Offer.”
It was the latest eruption in a generation-long trail of consumerist frenzy — both online and in the physical world — that has touched companies from Nike to Walmart to Apple as human beings race, sometimes frantically, to keep pace with buying trends and the potential for resale.
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“It looks like people got crazy to get a Royal Pop to make money through resale, not because they are fans of the Swatch,” said Pierre-Yves Donze, a business history professor at Osaka University Graduate School of Economics. “People want money, especially. Royal Pop is not like a cool product, but a way to make easy money.”
