Omega x Swatch The collaboration that caused an Internet earthquake

Hundreds of people in front of Swatch stores and police brawls took place on March 26 in some countries in front of the stores that sold the new MoonsWatch. It's called hype.

Of course, the watch community was heavily stimulated weeks earlier by the risky project of connecting the more elite Omega buyers with the primarily sporty casual Swatch customers. The media attention was actually huge and I too must admit that I too considered going to Munich 150 km away on Sunday morning. However, the small number of 100 pieces that were available in stores seemed too bizarre for me.

Is this a really brilliant marketing strategy or will it result in major damage to Omega's image? Will both brands (which belong to the same Swatch Group) benefit and if so, how?

In any case, we're learning: it still works: Tell a lot, a lot, find new names (for old things) (the plastic material with a bit of ceramic in the Swatch is called “BioCeramic”), create emotions with beautiful pictures of planets and good brand names (Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter...) that remind us of the story of the original Speedmaster Moonwatch. The watch community knows the story of NASA, which was looking for watches for the moon landing and carried out tests on weightlessness, shock resistance, magnetic field resistance, etc. Supposedly only one passed all tests: the Omega Speedmaster. Wow, what a story!

In history, strategic marriages are a tradition and usually lead to an immense expansion of the respective territories; the Habsburgs in particular were true masters of this.

But the interesting question is the following: Does this damage Omega's image or does it benefit him?

I don't think there's just one answer to that question. If we look at it from the perspective of introducing new people to the hobby of collecting watches, this cooperation makes perfect sense. It symbolizes the first touchpoint in a user journey, which is remembered so that at a later stage, when he or she has more money or is willing to spend more money on a watch, the buyer thinks of the brand with which their hobby began: Omega. It felt the same way for me personally. As a child, I often admired the watch on my father's wrist; it was an old Omega Seamaster from the 70s in the “TV shape”. Omega has had a special place in my heart ever since. This cooperation certainly achieves this effect.

From a different — a bit more negative — point of view, it's still a brilliant move. Just a few weeks ago, everyone was talking about the new Omega Aquaterra models and why Omega is able to release such a brazen copy of the Rolex Datejust series that was so hyped last year in bright colors. Cooperation with Swatch however — no one is talking about it anymore. And even more importantly, far less is being reported about the new Rolex models. In this regard, it is an exciting and interesting development for the brand and its place in the sky of the luxury watch market.

What is certain is that the new cooperation created media hype. Many love this step. The average person is slowly getting annoyed by incredibly limited collaborations such as Patek Philipp and Tiffany, which hardly anyone can buy — even if they could pay the “retail price.” Since Swatch has already announced that these watches will also be available on the Internet at a later date, this does not create this feeling. I am not alone in this opinion, Hoodinkee, one of the most popular watch blogs, said something similar in her conclusion:

“One way to think about it is as an extra-fancy Swatch that serves as a gateway to finer mechanical horology.” Hoodinkee

Whether MoonsWatch will meet the strategists' expectations remains to be seen and will depend not least on how further marketing is structured and: how you continue to promote it. The latter is our area of expertise and I'm very, very excited