With Swatch working overtime to increase the manufacturing capacity of its immensely popular (and still mostly sold-out) MoonSwatch, attention is now turning to what might come next.
We’ve already speculated on what might happen if Swatch focused on other members of the Omega family. And it turns out we weren’t that far from the truth, as Swatch did indeed experiment with a bioceramic version of the Seamaster 300m. The company looked at a Swatchified version of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms too, as reported by Wired last month.
Now we’re seeing some more speculation come out of the woodwork, based on comments made by Swatch Group chief executive Nicholas Hayek, who spoke to journalists at a secret briefing just before the MoonSwatch was announced, on 18 March.
Watch website Time + Tide reports how Hayek said during that briefing: “There could be another collaboration. We have some other ideas and I think there are other people who are approaching Swatch, who are perhaps in the high end. After this [MoonSwatch] operation I could imagine that some would imagine to be able to work with us and do a similar approach. Only it would not be a big surprise anymore.”
What’s interesting here is how these comments were made on the eve of the MoonSwatch being made public, before anyone could have predicted quite how popular the playful take on Omega’s Speedmaster would become. If other “high-end” brands were already knocking on Swatches door in March, then it is perhaps safe to assume they are even more interested in the wake of how enormously popular the MoonSwatch became.
It would be easy to get carried away at the prospect of Swatch looking beyond its own group for a MoonSwatch successor. Instead of a bioceramic James Bond-style Omega 300M, what about a playful and affordable Rolex Submariner, or Audemar Piguet Royal Oak? Perhaps a bioceramic Tudor too, or maybe a brightly-coloured partnership with Hublot?
Given Hayek’s comments and the massive success of the MoonSwatch, any of this could feasibly become reality. However, for now, Swatch’s primary focus must be on increasing production volumes to meet MoonSwatch demand. Wired reported how new manufacturing equipment to produce more of the watch’s bioceramic case is being installed.
A second Swatch smash hit won’t arrive overnight, and we suspect discussions into what that might be may have only just begun. But once Swatch’s bioceramic production capacity has been increased, surely the lure of creating front-page news in a way the MoonSwatch did will be hard for any watch brand, no matter how high-end, to resist.
