Collaborations are now a surefire way to get attention. When Kim Jones at Louis Vuitton announced a special collaboration with skateboard brand Supreme, the "hype" lost its collective mind. A more recent example: when the creative minds of Gucci and The North Face came together, the hysteria was and is especially great. Collaborations are a trend! let's see everything about the Omega x Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch.
Collaborations in the world of watches are also nothing new. In the past 12 months, some of them have amassed large amounts of today's preferred currency - social media buzz. Patek Philippe x Tiffany's collaborations immediately come to mind, while others have combined two audience-engaging stories and produced some pretty meaningful end products such as TAG Heuer x Porsche, Breitling x Triumph, Girard Perregaux x Aston Martin collaborations. So collaborations definitely exist and work. Some only as brand promotion, others as serious commercial sales success.
However, the joint mission of the Omega and Swatch collaboration takes the art of collaboration to the next level. The journey began nine months ago in a boardroom in Biel with Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann, Swatch Creative Director Carlo Giordanetti and Omega product design heads Gregory Kissling and Hayek, all tasked with developing a collaboration that captures the zeitgeist. This is how the Speedmaster MoonSwatch collection was born.
So there are 11 models, all named after planets and each with its own unique color scheme. The material for all models is bioceramic, patented by Swatch. This is a key differentiator for Omega, as it is a pioneering new material that demonstrates something new and progressive. The luminous dial uses the same material as on Omega Speedmasters and glows green in the dark.
None of the copies are limited or numbered, so the watches are not that exclusive. However, due to demand and hype, they will be sold immediately. But let's get to the product. Like the Speedmaster, the watch is 42mm in diameter, 13mm thick, and MoonSwatch uses the same glass material for the case. The readability of the chronograph display is also remarkably similar to the Speedmaster, which is all the more impressive given that all the watches are made in the Swatch factories. On the back of each case is a picture of the individual planet. These are mounted above the battery and come directly from the NASA labs.
Combining two different brands. Innovations and traditions
Swatch uses an extremely innovative material: bioceramics, a mixture of ceramics and ecologically produced plastic. And the price level offers an opportunity to get a wider audience interested in a top-of-the-line watch. "That was the basis on which we thought together," says Hayek. “When the creators came up with the idea for the Swatch Speedmaster, they made a test cut in the bioceramic material to see if it made sense for the Speedmaster to look like this. The inspiration was our solar system. The goal is also the traditional Swach affordability.
The watches will be on display in 70 Omega stores and 110 Swatch stores worldwide on March 24th and 25th, and will only be available in Swatch stores from March 26th. Each watch costs 250 euros, and only two copies can be purchased at a time.
