Christian Faes

A normal Audemars Piguet watch costs around $30,000 and has a years-long waitlist. Swatch is about to sell a $400 version of it on May 16, walk-in only. The last time Swatch did this, with Omega in 2022, it sold over a million units in its first year. The MoonSwatch retailed for $260 and used plastic instead of steel, but kept the look of Omega's $8,000 Speedmaster. Morgan Stanley estimated it drove close to 20% of Swatch Group's entire 2022 profit. Nine months after launch, lines outside Swatch stores still formed every morning. Audemars Piguet makes only 53,000 watches a year. The Royal Oak alone accounts for 88% of their roughly $2.9 billion in 2025 revenue, putting AP third among Swiss watch brands behind only Rolex and Cartier. Steel Royal Oaks retail from $20,000 to $40,000 and trade for $45,000 to $100,000 on the resale market. The waitlist for new buyers at AP boutiques runs twelve to twenty-four months. Two things make this collab different. First, Audemars Piguet doesn't share a parent company with Swatch the way Omega and Blancpain do. With those earlier partners, all the profit stayed inside one corporate family. With AP, real money flows to an outside company for every unit sold. Second, Swatch needs this. Their profit per dollar of sales went from 15 cents in 2023 to under 5 cents in 2024, a 75% drop from $1.3 billion to $335 million. China was the main reason. If the $300-$500 Royal Pop sells anywhere near MoonSwatch numbers in year one, the volume works out to around twenty times AP's entire annual production, at less than 1% of what AP usually charges. AP's high-end watches stay rare and expensive. Swatch gets the hit it needs.

Following the ongoing situation in Iran, I am convening a special Security College on Monday. For regional security and stability, it is of the utmost importance that there is no further escalation through Iran’s unjustified attacks on partners in the region.

BREAKING: Forbes 2025 30 Under 30 honoree Gokce Guven, who founded fintech startup Kalder, now faces up to 52 years in prison for an alleged $7 million fraud

The anniversary is Wednesday — not tomorrow — Katie. Oof. With $22.4 billion in insurance payouts and 2,617 permits approved by locals, multiple homes have been rebuilt. LA’s recovery is one of the fastest in modern history — and there is MUCH more we need to do!