Today’s the day! Fans around the world are waiting in line right now to buy the recently announced Omega X MoonSwatch, a $260 “homage” to the Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch. I’ve never seen anything like this level of hype for a watch before.
Instagram is absolutely filled with photos and videos of people queuing up to buy this thing. In just a few seconds of searching I was able to find huge lines of people waiting outside Swatch stores in cities like Sydney, London, Geneva, and New York. I had sorta planned to visit the Grand Central Swatch store here in New York (pictured below, via @WatchChris) at some point today to see if I could pick one up, but that’s clearly not going to happen.
Really, the only thing I can compare this to is the first few iPhone launches (which John and I covered for TechCrunch back in the day), when people would line around city blocks to buy the Apple smartphone. It’s a total vibe shift.
Anyway, a Swatch representative has confirmed to us that the MoonSwatch will be sold online at a “later date,” but they were unable to say when exactly. I’m guessing Swatch is absolutely floored by the response to this thing and are sorta scrambling to meet demand, but that is speculation on my part. More information about the watch can be found on the Swatch website.
The MoonSwatch was initially limited to two per customer, but that has been changed to one per customer “for the moment,” in a switch first spotted by our friends over at Scottish Watches. This is likely a decision to put a dent in the gray market, to prevent folks from buying one for themselves and then flipping the other on eBay.
Speaking of eBay, you can find MoonSwatches there for anywhere from $500 to more than $2,000, depending on the model. So if you need it right now I guess that’s an option. But again: you’ll be able to buy them online soon enough.
We discuss the Omega X MoonSwatch in-depth in next week’s episode of The HourTime Show, the official podcast of WristWatchReview.com, which will be published on Monday morning. Just search “hourtime” in your podcast app or add the feed here. Embedded below is last week’s episode.
Make sure to keep it locked here at WristWatchReview.com and @wristwatchreview on Instagram for more on the MoonSwatch!
UPDATE, March 26 2022 as 12pm ET: Wow. That’s basically all I can say. Social media is flooded right now of images and videos of Swatch stores around the world of folks trying, more than likely in vain, to get a MoonSwatch. The reports I’ve seen suggest that many stores had 200-ish pieces available per location. which is nowhere near the amount needed to satisfy demand. We’ll see how this plays out over the coming weeks, but it feels safe to say that this has been a huge win for Swatch / Omega / Swatch Group, at least in terms of brand awareness. (I think you’ll find that the percentage of humans who have any idea what the “real” Moonwatch is to be vanishingly small. I suspect the average person’s awareness of Omega comes from James Bond. There’s a huge number of folks who are completely new to the brand, and are only hearing about it now because of the MoonSwatch.) Whether or not the inability to meet that demand will become an issue for Swatch Group remains to be seen, but I’ve lived through plenty of these hype trains and I’m not sure, say, Sony is hurting over selling every single PS5 it can produce. Time will tell!
