The launch of the much-anticipated Royal Pop collaboration between Audemars Piguet and Swatch sparked chaotic scenes across several cities on Saturday, with videos of massive crowds and unruly queues going viral on social media.
Hundreds of people gathered outside Swatch stores in cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Dubai in hopes of getting their hands on the limited-edition watch collection.
In Bengaluru, videos from Phoenix Marketcity in Whitefield showed massive queues stretching across the mall premises as watch enthusiasts waited outside the Swatch store from early morning.
Another viral clip from Mumbai showed frustrated customers packed tightly together amid pushing and shouting. “We are not animals; the store is not opening today,” one man was heard saying in the video.
Another attendee recording the scene said the atmosphere became increasingly hostile as crowds swelled. “It wasn’t fun and games anymore. After a point, it just got too rowdy. The kind of people in the queue, the pushing, the abusing. It just sucked all the joy out of it. I don’t even want that watch anymore. We could have gotten it; we were in the very front, we got pushed out, and we had to leave. After a point, it just wasn’t worth it,” he said.
Swatch x AP launch called off in Dubai
The chaos was not limited to India. According to a report by Gulf News, the launch event at Dubai Mall was cancelled over public safety concerns after huge crowds gathered outside the stores from as early as 6:45 am.
“In view of public safety considerations, we have decided not to proceed with the sale of the product at Dubai Mall and Mall Of The Emirates, and the event has been cancelled,” Swatch’s regional Instagram account said in a statement. No revised launch date has been announced so far.
Several social media users later criticised the organisers over alleged poor crowd management and lack of communication. “An absolute disappointment. The hype was predictable, yet there was no proper co-ordination and no real-time updates and very poor crowd management,” one attendee wrote online.
Others, however, supported the decision to cancel the launch in Dubai, saying safety should come first. Rishi Navani, who said he waited for nearly seven hours across two locations in Dubai, described the situation as “absolute chaos.”
“It’s good that they cancelled the launch as public safety comes first. I am all for waiting and getting my hands on it in a safe way,” he said.
