Are we experiencing another round of “hype culture?”
Shopping malls in Singapore saw snaking queues after Swatch and OMEGA announced the drop of their collaboration over the weekend. Thousands of people swarmed the Swatch outlets at Marina Bay Sands and ION Orchard - including that man who carried a chou chou in the queue - trying to get their hands on the latest BIOCERAMIC MoonSwatch collection.
The collection features 11 models that pay homage to planets, each model designed after one planetary figure. Priced close to $400 per watch, the collaboration sees a youthful twist to OMEGA’s iconic Speedmaster Moonwatch, which on average fetches close to $10,000.
@ruitianbear Dude literally told the police in chinese “pull your gun and shoot me la!” Just becuase he can’t get the Omega X Swatch Watch… 😵💫 #omega #omegaxswatch #swatch #orchardion #singapore #watch #shootmela ♬ original sound - Bear
The collaboration generated so much buzz with many having lined up as early as 4am. Unfortunately, the story didn’t end with a happy ending for every eager shopper. Videos that surfaced showed police officers rushing in to control the eager watch collectors and other shoppers at ION Orchard. A man was involved in an altercation with the police officers due to their poor management of queues. “You cut us out like that, and then shout at us,” he claimed. In frustration, he also dared them to “use (their) gun and shoot him.” Another video showed a woman fainted while being in the sea of humans. Several officers were seen carrying the young lady out of the crowd.
Within hours of the sale, online sites such as Carousell and eBay are already seeing watches listed at more than five times the retail price.
The frenzy caught the attention of Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, who branded the whole situation “an ugly incident.” In a Facebook post, Shanmugam said, “A man queuing up for a watch (by Swatch/Omega), gets so angry about whether the queue is working – he shouts at police officers as if it’s their fault.” Calling for Singaporeans to have a “sense of perspective,” the minister added that “there’s a war going on and people are suffering in many places. “We don’t need to lose our minds over these situations. It’s not life and death,” he concluded.
And, it truly isn’t because Swatch Singapore has released a statement to keep customers updated. Avid fans can look forward to the coming weeks to purchase the watches in stores as the models aren’t limited edition.
Reviews of the watches have surfaced and unfortunately, the watches do not live up to its fame. Looking through the discussion thread Omega x Swatch on Facebook, users are speaking out about its quality, only a few days after the release. A reviewer, Jeffrey So, found scratches on the watch when he boxed it. This was rather odd since the watch promises to be scratch-resistant. He also found out that the colour from the planetary case back has leaked onto the skin upon wearing it for long periods of time. Other factors that were raised include the shallow engravings at the back of the watch, the straps are of “garbage” quality and the watch felt more like plastic than the supposed composite of ceramic and bioplastic.
Much of the hype surrounding the Swatch x OMEGA MoonSwatch collection may be due to the pricing. It offers customers the chance to own a watch close to the iconic Speedmaster at just a fraction of the price. Also, perhaps it is the excitement of an unexpected collaboration between a luxury brand OMEGA and an industry icon Swatch, similar to the macro scale collaborations that we are all too familiar with including Adidas x Gucci and Supreme x Louis Vuitton.
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