The last time a watch release raised as much interest as the MoonSwatch — was when Apple released its first watch in 2014.

Before that, the only launch which may have generated as much interest — based on stories we’ve heard from discussions with watch industry professionals over the years — was the original Swatch watch in 1983.

The Swatch Group, which owns Omega, Tissot, Longines, Breguet, Blancpain, Rado, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Swatch, ETA — no longer exhibit at the biggest Swiss watch show opting to launch everything online instead, saving millions in marketing expense associated with attending such extravagant shows (in the case of the entire group the number they save is estimated to be over $15 million per year).

In spite of their lack of physical attendance at an official Swiss show, nothing says they cannot debut their timepieces before or during the show, and that’s exactly what they did this year, cleverly dropping their leading brand Omega’s releases, among others from the group, in the first week of March — getting the jump on the exhibitors who show at Watches & Wonders Geneva, which did not start until March 29th, 2022.

This strategic move took away some of the thunder from Watches & Wonders. But little did anyone know that Swatch and Omega still had an ace up their sleeve, which we all know now, was the MoonSwatch, which dropped on March 27th, just days before the start of Watches & Wonders Geneva.

A co-branded Omega x Swatch quartz-powered plastic Speedmaster that costs $260, effectively stole the show, possibly in a similar way to when Swatch released the first Swatch watch in 1983. By the time Watches & Wonders opened, everyone was talking online about the MoonSwatch. What’s even crazier, almost a month after the MoonSwatch launch, the demand is still creating physical queues outside of Swatch retail locations around the world, as people try to acquire one of the $260 Moonwatch lookalikes.

The MoonSwatch is by far the most popular watch launch we’ve ever witnessed — with the exception of the original Apple Watch.

With that said, despite reports that the MoonSwatches would soon be available online, they have still not available except at brick and mortar Swatch stores. So we reached out to Swatch this week and they confirmed with Professional Watches that the stores are still being replenished randomly, and that will continue, however, there are no updates on when the MoonSwatches will be available for sale online as that’s still TBD. We will publish an update on online availability the moment we have it. In the meantime, MoonSwatch mania continues.

 

Photos by Swatch/Finacial Times.