Watch as it unfolds

The thing to learn from the Audemars Piguet x Swatch drama isn't that we need good security, it's that we, on our screens, are part of the drama too

- Arshia [e-mail]

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never worn a wristwatch. You can’t have missed the Audemars Piguet x Swatch drama unfolding on your socials over the weekend. Because, like the Indian influencers at Cannes, the algorithm made sure you saw it.

The TL;DR: Big-ticket collab between luxe AP and more affordable Swatch. New Royal Pop (the colourful $400 rendition of AP’s $25,000-on-the-waitlist Royal Oak design) drops at Swatch stores. Reels of people camping out at NYC stores four days ahead, queues in cities that have civic sense, crowds everywhere else. Then, videos of people pushing barricades to enter (to buy a watch), angry hordes chanting to be let in (to buy a watch), stores cancelling the launch, citing public-safety concerns (over buying a watch) and spokespersons announcing that the watches aren’t so limited-edition after all.