Chaos at AP x Swatch Collab Launch Leads to Fights, Shutdowns and Police

The launch of the Audemars Piguet x Swatch collaboration has been so chaotic that several locations have shut down due to wild crowds.

Clips of the highly anticipated launch of the affordable collaboration between the two popular Swiss watchmakers have gone viral on social media, depicting large crowds in locations like SoHo, Atlanta, and Long Island sprinting around barriers and being generally chaotic to the point that it looked dangerous to be there.

In some instances, police were called to packed stores to stop altercations in progress — such as in Milan, where officials can be seen attempting to get everyone back in order.

For what it’s worth, Swatch doesn’t seem like it’s for all of the chaos and unruliness at its stores because of the launch. The watch company released a statement about the fact that it had to cancel launches at its locations like Mall at Millenia in Orlando and King of Prussia mall in Pennsylvania and made it clear that more watches will be released.

“Todays’ Bioceramic Royal Pop Collection launch saw extraordinarily high demand,” the company wrote. “Some of our stores had to be closed in accordance with our security staff and local authorities to ensure a safe environment for everyone. We remind you that the Royal Pop Collection is not a limited edition.”

Check out some footage of the AP x Swatch collab release at different locations below:

At the time, the most popular watches from the collection (on the platform) were the Savonnette Lan Ba, Huit Blanc, and Ocho Negro with 18, eight, and six sales, respectively. For the lanyards, the Ocho Negro, Blaue Acht, and Huit Blanc are the most popular so far, with 18, 11, and 10 sales respectively.

AP and Swatch revealed the collaboration on May 12 with an official reveal video after previously teasing that there was something big coming for weeks.

After its reveal, Complex spoke to a number of experts and insiders to get their reaction to the collection.

Nadine Ghosn predicted that the pieces will make for “the perfect Birkin accessory” this coming summer, while luxury watch dealer Eric Wind was “shocked” by the pairing and doesn’t plan on buying anything due to them being, in his words, “too weird.”