Best guess, 500+ queuing at Lausanne in queue over 200m long. Police controlling the crowds. Stores opened before 9:30 it seems. Absolute madness.
Best guess, 500+ queuing at Lausanne in queue over 200m long. Police controlling the crowds. Stores opened before 9:30 it seems. Absolute madness.
The madness of crowds alive and well.
There is a question of how many of those madly inflated prices on ebay will actually get paid. I can see a lot of them simply being inflated using disposable accounts to mess up the scalpers.
Today though, I'm wearing my windy-up Moonwatch prominently, so people think I'm an influencer that's paid £50k for a watch...
A small part of me likes all this craziness as its about time another brand has a bit of a buzz around it. Rolex/AP/PP usually have all the lime light regardless of what other brands do.
Honesty the funniest strangest most bizarre piece of WIS retail news I’ve ever seen. Hysteria over a swatch. Just bonkers. Bet it makes the news
Credit to Omega/Swatch and their marketing teams for getting such a buzz around this a week before the more seriously unobtainable stuff is revealed next week. I love the playful nature of the moonswatch and will definitely buy one or two once the hype has settled down. It will be a cool thing to add to my small collection.
I guess it makes a big difference depending on your motivation for being there.
If you're there to buy a £200 watch at launch rather than wait a couple of months, you'll likely have a different attitude to those that are there looking to make a few hundred or even a few thousand pounds profit and don't care if they are doing so off of watches, toilet rolls or cocaine.
I was wearing my X-33 (I had set the alarm for 8:30am… didn’t want to get there too late ) but quite discreetly I thought.
While talking to a gentleman in the queue, who had been there since 6am and was an employee of JAXA, I heard someone else in the queue keep saying “Ex, Ex, Ex!” and pointing in my direction. I genuinely did that “looking behind me to see what they are pointing at” thing a couple of times.
Then I realised, he meant my X-33, which he had spotted beneath my cuff. I showed him, and his girlfriend actually clapped.
There's some great, but I suspect somewhat disappointed, Speedmaster fans in Japan.
More hilarous Edinburgh’s stock was delivered to the wrong address on Thursday
10 paltry boxes, left in the shop across the road.
My cousin is in the queue in London and reports 1000s queuing, the queue itself is degenerating and police are on the scene.
The next time I’m in Edinburgh, if they’re in stock, I’ll get both the Mercury and Mars.
Job done re the marketing, might as well open the online shop right now, even if delivery takes a while.
It’s one thing having a queue, it’s another having the police called in Sydney, Tokyo and UK. And the US hasn’t opened yet.
The queue in Amsterdam 15 mins before opening…
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I was going to go down early, but central line part closed. Had a friend who did, there from about 7 and no chance at any of the London stores.
Carnaby st:
Covent Garden
The one thing that stands out for me is the difference between all these "queues" where people are looking to make a few quid off of a bit of disposable plastic, and the dignified and orderly queues of refugees fleeing from Ukraine attempting to save their own lives and the lives of their families.
Seems like it is actually a marketing stroke of genuine by Omega & Swatch.
These are going to be super spreader events too.
Good luck to those getting one but if they will be online soon as mentioned I think I’ll wait.
My IG stream is positively throbbing with the event. Belgium and China are also experiencing long queues.
The shots from successful purchasers do show nice packaging and the watches themselves look very smart. There is some sniping from traditional Speedy owners, poo-pooing the plastic.
But it's obvious Swatch / Omega have a huge hit on their hands as you can have a genuine lookalikey for very little money.
Gotta feel sorry for the staff in the shops. I’m imagining a hectic morning with rude, exasperated customers complaining that they didn’t get a moon watch after coming all the way down there.
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Queue jumpers at Covent Garden apparently. So glad I decided against heading down.
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Marketing masterclass from Swatch. Very smart.
Those queues look horrendous - peoples capacity to inconvenience themselves to that extent will never fail to amaze me. I do hope a few of the watches actually end up in the hands of enthusiasts though (unlikely I know, but one can hope).
These guys are about to discover they’re not available in the Omega boutique.
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I went to a fight and sales of Moonswatches broke out
Those queues tell me one thing - the Moonswatch is magical and game-changing
I might pick a couple up if they go online, not getting involved in the scrum and instead am having a coffee overlooking the park while wearing my 145.0022-78.
I stopped my son going down as I said it would be pointless. It's actually pretty funny given they are not limited editions. Some swatch designs do have very long lifespans as current stock so if the demand is there they will churn them out for a fair while.
Bonkers, love how only the people at the front of the queue got uptight about being filmed and nobody else cared.
How hilarious would it be if Swatch surprised everybody by making them available online at the same time with enough stock for everyone. Not THAT would be marketing genius!!!
Last edited by Tetlee; 26th March 2022 at 10:57.
On the Scottish watch group on FB, they’re saying the Edinburgh store only had 200 to sell, so a lot of unhappy campers (literally) on their way home empty handed.
Watches trading already in the Edinburgh queue. Person next to my son just paid £600 for a Mission to Mars. He also says loads of people have arrived to join their mates in front of him so the chances are reducing.
It´s apparently very difficult to persuade people who´ve been the victims of a con to accept they were conned, it can be quite tough on the old self image, after all it takes a strong identity to come to terms with such, who wants to admit they´ve been made a fool of...see also recentish significant political decision, but I´ll say no more... I genuinely think we live in a truly wondrous and remarkable time of technologically enhanced opportunity for those peddling seductive, self image enhancing trinkets, other products too, cars is another one...generating madness and fomo among crowds has probably never been easier, people are so easily hacked.
Last edited by Passenger; 26th March 2022 at 11:15.