Omega x Swatch

[Ruggertech]

Just took delivery of Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch ”Dark Side of the Moon” but told her indoors it's just a cheap Moonswatch so no drama. Result!

Until you leave it on the dressing table one day and she gives it to a niece/nephew/friend or whatever cos its just a cheap bit of fun ;)

[mart broad]

Will get one for me and the missus likes the Uranus version when all the ho ha settles down still seeing crazy pricing including Chrono24 the Uranus version at 8K but it’s all good fun

[timc]

I am wondering if i am underpaying for automatic watches on the grey market... if quartz go for these prices grey...

[Christian]

I was reflecting on this. Comment not aimed at anyone, just quoting for context.

Let's hypothetically say on release date you could flip a moonswatch for £500 profit, for arguments sake, and until the very late in the day that's actually £1,000 profit as people were supposed to be able to buy two.

Now forget about watches for a moment. There's essentially no different than a store advertising a free cash gift of £500-£1,000 to the first X customers. Is it really surprising or wrong that a bunch of people are pretty desperate to be in the first X customers then? At minimum wage you're looking 50-100+ hours of work to make that money, and that's assuming you even have access to full time paid work, so why wouldn't someone in that situation be willing to queue overnight and scramble to get there? This doesn't make them bad, dumb, or immoral people, they're just in a situation where this is a more sensible trade-off of time/money than working those extra 50-100 hours elsewhere.

Easy for us to aim our dislike at the scalpers, but frankly if people are willing to pay the premiums isn't it them driving this? Not the chap who's trying to get a few extra quid?

I would conclude by saying though, this is in relation who fairly attempted to get a moonswatch on day 1 (or any other hyped-up-and-hard-to-get product). I have zero empathy for the minority who tried intimidation, queue pushing etc.

This is exactly what I was saying. It’s the equivalent of somebody on the streets “making it rain” with cash. No wonder there are people fighting in the streets over it.

[Christian]

I happened to walk down Oxford Street today. Still a huge crowd of people outside the Swatch shop and 5 police officers stood watching. I couldn’t really work out what was going on…crowd on the pavement by the door (which was occasionally being opened) and a small queue down the street. Wasn’t interested enough to hang around and find out what the situation was.

Walked past the Omega shop who had the display case of watches. Obviously look like lumps of plastic but they do look well executed if you want a plastic Speedmaster. For me, I can’t see any situation where I’d want to put one on above any of my other watches, which means it would be a £200 purchase to just to keep in the drawer, so I doubt I’ll be ordering one. Without the brand tie in, effectively the Moonswatch is to the Moonwatch what those plastic Ice watches are to Submariners.

[markrlondon]

Wasn’t interested enough to hang around and find out what the situation was.

Obviously it's Eddie's new outlet shop. ;-)

[snowman]

The really clever flippers would be sticking them on EBay for £500 ish buy it now, selling quickly and cleanly then try to do it again next opportunity. No chance of being left with it.

There will be people out there who missed out yesterday or who can’t get to any of the shops without a substantial cost snapping their hands off…..

Oh, I don't doubt it, but that's exactly the kind of people I mean.

They could just wait a little while, but in a world where so few are prepared to wait a week to watch the next episode of a TV series, it shouldn't be surprising to find there are people desperate enough to pay double the price to have something today...

M

[watchcollector1]

Playing devils advocate, what difference would it make to Swatch Group?

If their £1billion came in via any of their sub-brands (including the Swatch product line and other brands including Renata batteries, ETA, Blancpain, Breguet, Glashütte Original, Harry Winston, Omega, Longines, Tissot, Mido, Hamilton, Certina, and Rado) it doesn’t matter to them.


The short term market for a £207 Swatch I would suggest is WAY bigger than that for a £5000 Omega.




With simple economies of scale, it might cost £10 to make and 5 minutes to assemble a MoonSwatch and a mark up of £190 (swatch shop cuts out the middleman) but you can (hypothetically) make a million of them in a year, maybe on a fully automated production line with no watchmaker, hand finishing or metallurgist skills required, £190million theoretical profit.

A moonwatch might take 4 days to be made and needs a lot more precision engineering, say costs £1500 in materials and workmanship, ypu then supply to a middleman for £3k and he sells for £5k. Swatch group make £1500 per watch but can only make 5000 a year? £7.5mil theoretical profit.


Halve my numbers produced for the MoonSwatch and you are at £95mil

Double my numbers produced for the Moonwatch and you are at £15mil

All theoretical of course.

I doubt a Moonwatch costs anywhere near £1500 to make . "Luxury" goods generally have very high margins.

[sprite1275]

Fair play to the people who want these. To me I just see a £40 plastic watch being sold at silly money. I'd rather a Casio. Then I'm old though.

[RJM25R]

I doubt a Moonwatch costs anywhere near £1500 to make . "Luxury" goods generally have very high margins.

I wasn’t trying to guess margins from manufacturers, maybe they cost more or less and they may sell them to the shops for more or less I was making an example of economies of scale.

Even if you double the profit I stated on the Moonwatch it’s still nowhere near what they could make churning out a ton of these on an automated production line.

A local McDonalds open 14 hours a day churning out £1 burgers and £3 Big Macs will outpace Salt Bae selling £700 gold plated steaks….. because the market for cheap and convenient is broader than the market for expensive and exclusive.

[Dm1672]

Seen this pic of the colour transfer

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[mrushton]

Saw a quote today from a buyer that his Seiko 5 was a better watch for less money. Every brand will be watching this phenomenon.

[markrlondon]

Seen this pic of the colour transfer

Eek, now that is a problem. Oh dear. So much for "bioceramic".

[chrisparker]

Saw a quote today from a buyer that his Seiko 5 was a better watch for less money. Every brand will be watching this phenomenon.

No doubt, a new Apple Watch series 3 at £179 is infinitely better but who cares. Brand association has huge value, and The Swatch Group have just found out how valued the Omega and Speedmaster brands are.

- - - Updated - - -

Saw a quote today from a buyer that his Seiko 5 was a better watch for less money. Every brand will be watching this phenomenon.

No doubt, a new Apple Watch series 3 at £179 is infinitely better but who cares. Brand association has huge value, and The Swatch Group have just found out how valued the Omega and Speedmaster brands are.

[hughtrimble]

Seen this pic of the colour transfer [/IMG]

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I wonder how Uranus will stain

[Montello]

I wonder how Uranus will stain

Lol …

[Christian]

No doubt, a new Apple Watch series 3 at £179 is infinitely better but who cares. Brand association has huge value, and The Swatch Group have just found out how valued the Omega and Speedmaster brands are.

Agree. I also think everyone on here has automatically assumed people are interested in the watch because of the Speedmaster link but for non-WIS, it's more about the brand name rather than the model. I've seen people on non-watch forums like reddit love them because they can finally buy a watch with "Omega" written on the dial, not because it's a Speedy.

[Kairos]

What a stroke of genius by the marketing men (women, thems etc and whatever they identify as), a parallel move, to my mind, as the Swatch move in the 80s that reinvigorated the Swiss watch industry. Cheap fun, colourful watches that competed with the Japanese quartz watches..... only this 'fake' Speedmaster from the parent company has just piulled the rug out from under the 'fakers'. Brilliant - if people are going to buy fakes, they might as well buy them from the proper source!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304410425008

I can only imagine that the criminal sector have seen a brilliant opportunity to launder some dirty cash, who otherwise would pay £65,000 for a £200 plastic watch?

[j111dja]

I'm looking forward to the brains at Seiko having a think after all this Swatch/Omega hype. A plastic Marinemaster 300 for two hundred quid. Bring it on......

[Bravo73]

Has anyone on this thread/forum actually managed to get one of these watches? There seems to be a distinct lack of photos of actual watches on this thread so far…

[Tokyo Tokei]

Omega x Swatch

is an anagram of

We got max cash

Speedmaster MoonSwatch is an anagram of “To Spacemen Massed Worth”…

[tango]

I wonder how Uranus will stain

Priceless, lol!

[The Doc]

I've had this for years, no queuing necessary. But it doesn't have the special words on it.
:)

[Mr Curta]

Speedmaster MoonSwatch is an anagram of “To Spacemen Massed Worth”…

Excellent

[RJM25R]

Seen this pic of the colour transfer

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Serves him right for removing the stickers and wearing it!

What WAS he thinking? Investment GONE!

[RAJEN]

Serves him right for removing the stickers and wearing it!

What WAS he thinking? Investment GONE!

I know. Who removes stickers before wearing?
I have stickers on my ten year old DSSD.

[Tokyo Tokei]

Someone here is gamely selling their Moonswatch ticket from the Tokyo store queue on Saturday. It doesn’t entitle you to anything (the stores were advised not to open by the police, so ticket or no ticket, you got nothing) but, hey, it’s a part of history now

[magirus]

There should be a free mug included with each purchase.

[andrewcregan]

Seen this pic of the colour transfer
Tapatalk

Is this a fake?

Check out the case back detail of the real thing…..

https://www.swatch.com/en-gb/mission.../SO33N100.html

[Passenger]

There should be a free mug included with each purchase.

'Free' novelty omega mug when you buy the novelty O'swatchmega watch nice.

[andrewcregan]

There should be a free mug included with each purchase.

Isn’t Rolex the brand for free trinkets?
Got an umbrella and pen once

[Christian]

Is this a fake?

Check out the case back detail of the real thing…..

https://www.swatch.com/en-gb/mission.../SO33N100.html

Agree...there appears to be no text on the caseback. What I don't understand is wow on earth would fakes exist this quickly as it was such a closely guarded secret until a couple of days ago! It would imply the factory that make them are also making the fakes from the same moulds?

[andrewcregan]

Agree...there appears to be no text on the caseback. What I don't understand is wow on earth would fakes exist this quickly as it was such a closely guarded secret until a couple of days ago! It would imply the factory that make them are also making the fakes from the same moulds?

Perhaps these can be faked that quick?
Possible pre-production test?

[Christian]

Perhaps these can be faked that quick?
Possible pre-production test?

When was the cover blown on these watches...last Wednesday? 4-days to produce the designs and tooling to churn out a complete fake...I don't really know how it works but that shocks me. Would make more sense to me if either the original designs were leaked to the counterfeiters from the official factory or the factory themselves were responsible somehow. Also, the counterfeiters have kept things extremely under wraps to release at the same time as the real product.

That is all assuming that photo is a fake. Official pre-production test would make sense...again, whoever owned it was careful to release that picture after main launch and if they know it's not the actual production model I don't know their intentions posting that picture. All very odd!

[Rev-O]

I'm gonna mate these two and breed my own. Who wants one?

[andrewcregan]

I'm gonna mate these two and breed my own. Who wants one?

It’s clearly a winning formula.

To the average Joe on the street, these new watches look like an Omega.
Getting into ‘Omega’ at the £207 price point is incredible.

[Christian]

It’s clearly a winning formula.

To the average Joe on the street, these new watches look like an Omega.
Getting into ‘Omega’ at the £207 price point is incredible.

Yep...from the comments I've seen in non-WIS forums/subs, it's not even about the Speedmaster but having a watch with an Omega brand name on the dial. They could have made any design and stuck Omega on the dial and got the same level of interest. I'd reckon most people couldn't care less about the actual watch, more about being seen to wear something with a luxury brand on the dial.

[apm101]

Have had eyes on at the Omega boutique on Regents Street.

Still like them, actually think the blue Neptune is my fave now. None at the Swatch shop, not even display.



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[hughtrimble]

Have had eyes on at the Omega boutique on Regents Street.

Still like them, actually think the blue Neptune is my fave now. None at the Swatch shop, not even display.



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Did they let you cop a feel or are they window display only?

[Wallasey Runner]

Have had eyes on at the Omega boutique on Regents Street.

Still like them, actually think the blue Neptune is my fave now. None at the Swatch shop, not even display.



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Who is the old git in the reflection having a good gawp at them.

[magirus]

Perhaps these can be faked that quick?
Possible pre-production test?

The horror of buying a plastic watch, only to find that plastic fakes are already being made.

[Tokyo Tokei]

Is this a fake?

Check out the case back detail of the real thing…..

https://www.swatch.com/en-gb/mission.../SO33N100.html

Random Rob on YouTube has posted a video showing the same blue colour transfer, suggesting it is from the battery hatch sticker.

[Christian]

Random Rob on YouTube has posted a video showing the same blue colour transfer, suggesting it is from the battery hatch sticker.

I hadn't realised that was just a sticker over the normal battery hatch. Was wondering where the slot you put the 2p piece to unscrew the cover was!

[Sunnie]

I hadn't realised that was just a sticker over the normal battery hatch. Was wondering where the slot you put the 2p piece to unscrew the cover was!

Bravo Swatch. They have even managed to tap into the whole politics of sticker removal. At this rate, Rolex will have few USPS left.


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[anton863]

Have had eyes on at the Omega boutique on Regents Street.

Still like them, actually think the blue Neptune is my fave now. None at the Swatch shop, not even display.

Did you speak to anyone at the Swatch shop? Did they mention any expected ETA for new stock?

[alanm_3]

There should be a free mug included with each purchase.

Is that not the person that buys it over RRP? Or even RRP for that matter?

[Ctam]

Did you speak to anyone at the Swatch shop? Did they mention any expected ETA for new stock?

Yeah, would be good to know. But I guess for the next month or so, all stock will be bought up every time it arrives.

Maybe I will try my luck in the summer!


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[apm101]

Who is the old git in the reflection having a good gawp at them.

Can't see an old git, just a devilishly handsome chap...

They wouldn't let me touch them, had to make do with fondling a co-axial moonphase 57.

[coredriller]

I was talking to a chap from Swatch today. He said that they were due to get another batch in next week. I think that they should have held back a couple of thousand and sold them through ebay from today at rrp just to piss the scalpers off.

[anton863]

I was talking to a chap from Swatch today. He said that they were due to get another batch in next week. I think that they should have held back a couple of thousand and sold them through ebay from today at rrp just to piss the scalpers off.

Was there a day mentioned? I can call them myself tomorrow but may save them one of thousands of calls I'm sure they're receiving.