What to make of Swatch’s new and incredibly enigmatic advertisement? Product launch? Watch collaboration? Is Swatch rebranding as a luxury water company?
The Swiss watch company certainly went to great lengths to put it out there while simultaneously taking great pains to not make its intent obvious.
The only way you’d see Swatch’s teaser, had you not seen our photo of the inside pages of The Frankfurter Allgemeine above, is by skimming through some other of the world’s largest newspapers where Swatch has taken out sparse two-page spreads.
All for images of water and a very minimal Swatch logo that only offers the letter “S,” date (September 9, 2023), and a curiously blank space that suggests another company or person’s initial ought to be there.
Considering that this is the company that sprung its OMEGA collaboration, the MoonSwatch, upon the world with hardly any warning or expectations of the immense demand that these limited edition watches would generate, seems likely that Swatch is taking precautionary measures before rolling out another big collaboration.
Sure, Swatch might be prepping its own new design but you don’t go to effort this great for any old timepiece. Either Swatch is debuting a major new watch or an equally huge collaboration and we’re leaning towards the latter.
We don’t have much else to go on besides the suspiciously empty space and the water, though. Perhaps that’s enough: we’re likely talking about a watch that can get wet. A diving watch?
If so, perhaps we’re looking at the next evolution of the OMEGA x Swatch MoonSwatch? Perhaps the next MoonSwatches won’t be MoonSwatches at all, but WaterSwatches.
Then again, the MoonSwatch’s shape comes from OMEGA’s inimitable Speedmaster. Could the OMEGA x Swatch Seamaster be next?
Or is it possible that Swatch is partnering with another company? Is it a label in the Swatch Group? There are a lot of labels famously talented at producing dive watches, like Longines and Breguet, which produces the French Navy-inspired Marine watch series.
On the flip side, Hamilton and Tissot make relatively affordable dive watches that could expand the MoonSwatch’s approachable nature.
But then… what if Swatch is looking outwards at other Swiss companies? Dare we even wonder aloud whether Swatch x Rolex, Swatch x Audemars Piguet, or Swatch x Patek Philippe is on the table?
Honestly, that’s probably a little too much wondering. The safest bet here is a Swatch Group company, particularly Omega. And the real safest bet is to hold on for more information, which ought to be arriving soon.
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