Moonswatch Mania

When the news “leaked” five days ago, few would have been expecting the tremendous madness that the launch of a watch would generate three days later. Saturday, March 26, 2022, will thus go down in watchmaking history, with a resounding launch worldwide that left many enthusiasts, collectors and ordinary people on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

There were queues and queues at the door of a selection of official Swatch stores worldwide, which promised to sell the much-desired “MoonSwatch” that until just over three days ago few people knew what it was. The reports among the many who went to the stores were almost surreal with many marking their place the day before, others setting up camp on the street to save their turn, unbelievable!

Initially, the sale of a maximum of two watches per person was promised, however soon for those who have been in this world of watches for some time, we realized that this would be a utopia unless the brands involved had achieved, through a stroke of magic, a production from another world, and the result, as you would not expect, was the guarantee of the sale of a single unit per customer and only for those who had the audacity to be present in the queues very early, until stocks run out. Several stores in different parts of the planet were not able to open, as was the case with the Hong Kong store.

But the madness of Moonswatch mania was not restricted to the “carnival” of its launch, a few hours before the news came out there were already people trying to “bribe” employees of official stores to show them what was inside the suitcase and even with a few offers to pay whatever was inside the suitcase. After the news flew, the madness only increased, now it was possible to find some of these watches at auction on the internet, with bids reaching at least £ 2,500.

A Scheduled Leak?

News leaks happen every day, but how convenient can a leak be? This one was very convenient, if the news was just revealed as it was scheduled on the 26th how could there be so many people to buy the desired Moonswatch? Risky marketing move or not, what we can say is that it was a tremendous success and therefore a very convenient leak. In our opinion, it was a mix between leakage, opportunity and blunder, with brands betting on a possible success, but the question remains how big could it be? with the blunder of disclosing information to some media with an embargo until a certain date, and with some immediately announcing reveal on the 24th and others on the 26th, the leak consented became inevitable at 23rd with the brands surrendering to the evidence of also disclosing the news on their websites at the end of the day.

Swatch or Omega?

This is the question that many ask themselves, the obvious thing is that it is a collaboration between the two brands, which belong to the Swatch group, we would say that the watch has almost as much of one as the other and if we had to risk it we would say that it would be a 60/40 in favour of Omega.

The case shape and its proportions, including the bezel including the famous dot over 90, the crown, pushers, twisted lugs have to be attributed to Omega. As well as the dial where the layout is impressively similar to the Moonwatch, not missing the Omega logo as well as the Speedmaster stamp. Not even the crystal detail was forgotten, with the new Moonswatch sporting the “S” of the Swatch logo stamped on the glass just like the Omega symbol on the Moonwatch. Finally, the Velcro strap, which is once again attached to the Omega, was used on the Speedmaster Moonwatch during the space mission that made it famous.

As far as Swatch is concerned, the new Moonswatch undoubtedly owes it the Bioceramic case material, made from 100% recycled material and which in recent years has been one of the strong bets of the brand, and the Quartz movement, which at first glance may seem too simplistic, but thanks to it, saved the Swiss industry of the collapse in the 70s and 80s.

Luck or Mastery?

As they say, luck is the one who makes it, and therefore this launch undoubtedly sounds like a mastery, from the first moment, and we are exempt when talking about it because we must have been one of the first to publicize its launch, we dare to say that this could be one of the releases of the year and today after all this hustle it seems that we were not wrong.

Brilliant is the best word we could find to describe this release, as few could imagine this collaboration. The importance of this launch is so relevant to the point of looking for new enthusiasts and bringing to the game others who were away, after all, who hasn’t dreamed of having an “Omega Speedmaster” for just over €250? it was beautiful to see young kids excited to buy their Moonswatch and people of all ages thrilling to have one of these watches in their hands, it’s without a doubt a huge anthem to the watchmaking industry, we can only applaud.

And for the many who saw this collaboration as a misstep by Omega as it could eventually be associated with cheap watches, the answer is being given by the market, with demand for new Omega Speedmasters soaring these days.