By Sean Sherzady · Watchfinder Canada
The collab is real. Audemars Piguet and Swatch have confirmed it. A hockey-themed plastic watch, multiple colorways, available through Swatch boutiques the way the MoonSwatch was. The pre-launch chatter is already deafening. My phone has not stopped ringing since the news dropped — collectors, dealers, friends of friends, all asking the same question: “Sean, can you get me one?”
I want to be honest with you. I am not helping anyone get one of these. And I want to tell you why.
I've been in this thirty years
I have sold, traded, repaired, authenticated and lived with watches since 1995. I have stood behind a counter when a Royal Oak Jumbo was a slow seller. I have watched the same watch become the most flipped object on the secondary market. I have seen Audemars Piguet evolve from a quiet collector's brand into the loudest house in luxury. And on every step of that journey, the company has been very careful about one thing: who is allowed to wear the watch.
A Swatch collab does the opposite of that. It throws the door open and tells the world: anyone can have the silhouette. For around three to four hundred dollars. In plastic. In a sports-team color palette.
The defenders' argument — and why I'm not buying it
The argument I keep hearing is that this is how AP grows the next generation of watch lovers. The kid who buys the Swatch in 2026 becomes the buyer of a real Royal Oak in 2036. The plastic watch is a recruitment poster.
I do not buy it.
The MoonSwatch did not create a generation of new Omega Speedmaster buyers. It created a generation of people who flipped a $250 plastic watch for $700 on eBay. The same will happen here, only worse, because the Royal Oak silhouette is a much bigger trophy than the Speedmaster silhouette. When the people lined up at 4am at the Swatch boutique are dealers and resellers — and I promise you they will be — you are not building a brand, you are running a lottery.
What this actually fuels
I have spent the last week talking to other Toronto dealers and to a few of my contacts at the European houses. The pattern is identical to MoonSwatch and to Blancpain x Swatch:
- Day one: queues of resellers, one watch per customer, immediate listings on eBay at three times retail
- Week one: prices settle to roughly 2x retail
- Month three: prices drift down toward retail, but the flippers who bought the cleanest colorways on launch day clear $400–$800 per unit
- Year one: the watch becomes another item in the secondary-market hustle, not a collector's piece
The buyer who pays a flipper $1,200 for a plastic AP-shaped Swatch is not falling in love with watchmaking. They are buying a logo and a story. The buyer who actually wants to learn what AP makes is not finding their way into a Royal Oak through this. They are finding their way into another speculative trade.
That is not what a luxury brand should be producing. That is hype-grade marketing dressed up as accessibility, and it ends up cheapening exactly the thing the brand has spent decades building.
What I'd rather you spend the time on
If you have an entry-level budget and you actually want to start a collection, here is what I tell every caller who asks me about the AP Swatch:
- A clean Tudor Black Bay at retail or just below it will teach you more about a real watch than any plastic collab.
- A pre-owned Omega Speedmaster Reduced sits in the $1,800–$2,400 range in Canada right now. It is a real movement, real history, real horology.
- A vintage Seiko 5 or a Cartier Must Tank in the $300–$600 range is a better cultural object than a $400 plastic Royal Oak silhouette.
None of those watches will let you brag about queueing in the rain at a Swatch boutique. All of them will still be on your wrist in ten years. And if you have to choose, I'd rather you spend the same $400 on a real watch you will own forever than a plastic one you will eventually sell.
The Watchfinder view
I respect AP. I have placed clients into Royal Oaks for thirty years and I will keep doing it. But I will not be lining up for the Swatch version and I will not be putting my clients on a waiting list for it. If you want one — and I understand the pull — you do not need me to chase it. You can stand in line yourself, and I would rather spend my time helping you find the real thing you'll actually keep.
Watchfinder is here to help you build a collection that holds up under time and scrutiny. That is the mandate. The hype watches will come and go.
Calls about the AP Swatch: I am politely declining to source these for clients. If you are looking for a real entry into Royal Oak collecting, or a thoughtful first luxury piece in the $500–$3,000 range, message me directly through the Watch Club Canada community or come by the Yorkville showroom. We have time for the real ones.
Sean Sherzady is the founder of Watchfinder Canada and a thirty-year veteran of the watch industry. He authenticates at CheckMyWatch.com and curates Sean's List, the dealer-driven Canadian watch marketplace launching this year.