Audemars Piguet and Swatch’s watch collaboration, Royal Pop, launched in May. Customers and resellers lined up outside of Swatch stores days in advance.Audemars Piguet x Swatch
When Swatch and Audemars Piguet announced their recent Royal Pop watch collaboration, expectations were high for haute horology at a modest price.
The luxury Swiss watchmaker’s partnership with the more accessible Swatch takes the emblematic octagonal shape of the former’s Royal Oak watch (with an entry point in the mid five figures) and renders it in the colourful composite material popularized by the latter’s MoonSwatch collection.
The mid-May release did not go as planned. Customers and resellers lined up outside of Swatch stores days in advance. But on launch day, amid viral demand and surging, scuffling crowds, the brand was forced to shutter stores from London to Dubai. The rollout didn’t exactly backfire – Royal Pop watches are selling on eBay for multiples of their original $525 retail price – but the fiasco cast a shadow over the highly anticipated drop.
This photo taken on May 15, shows people camping out in line outside of the Swatch store in Times Square in New York, ahead of the May 16 release of the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Royal Pop watch.TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
Even in stunt collaborations, the sense of scarcity inherent in one-time brand collaborations ignites demand. The Business of Fashion’s 2026 State of Fashion forecast suggested that exclusivity is a driver for increased luxury spending among Gen Z and millennial consumers.
Notably, lanyard timepieces such as those in the Royal Pop collection don’t so much resemble pocket watches as they do pendant necklaces or playful bag charms, pointedly appealing to younger shoppers and women.
It’s a strategy that’s also reflected in the partnership between Adidas and department store Liberty London, which regularly brings nostalgic floral prints to the sports company’s Samba, Gazelle and Sam Smith sneakers in an effort to draw more female customers to the brand. Classic British outfitter Barbour likewise infuses its lineup with a hit of whimsy from collaborators such as brands Farm Rio and Ganni.
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The fashion category’s online visibility decreased by 8 per cent last year, according to a 2025 report by brand-building agency Karla Otto. Talent partnerships and unexpected alliances are a way for brands to recapture visibility and attention. Paired with a new price consciousness among consumers, the collaboration is about cultivating goodwill and emotional connection – and cutting through the algorithmic echo chamber of social media to reach new audiences.
Take Zara, whose recent moves are less about moving product than asserting cultural relevance. In addition to strategic global collaborations with kids apparel brand Caramel London and a capsule with designer Willy Chavarria, Zara announced it’s bringing on former Dior and Maison Margiela designer John Galliano for a two-year creative partnership. Zara also dressed music superstar Bad Bunny for his Super Bowl halftime show and tapped him to lead its new “Benito Antonio” collection.
Amidst all of this, there are unconfirmed reports that Isaac Mizrahi will soon be returning to Target. In 2003, the New York fashion designer’s collaboration with the American mass retailer joined the latter’s “Design for All” lineup that included Todd Oldham and Cynthia Rowley. Launched with pink suede gloves and a party at the temporary boutique at Rockefeller Center, the initial collection was so successful that it led to a five-year partnership.
Mizrahi became the face of high-low mixing and the democratization of upscale fashion, leading to Target’s “Tarjay” nickname. Similar high-low collaborations followed, such as Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M’s designer partnerships with Karl Lagerfeld in 2004 and Stella McCartney in 2005.
H&M revisits its relationship with McCartney this season with a sort of “greatest hits” of her architectural pieces from the archives. The original collab was just four years after the British designer founded her responsible production label, positioning ethical, cruelty-free and sustainable fashion as a new kind of luxury. H&M happily piggybacked on her credibility around socially conscious, planet-first manufacturing, and leaned on the label’s pioneering work with organic, recycled and innovative materials such as mushroom leather.
Two decades later, however, customers are more educated when it comes to the human and environmental toll of fast fashion. The reputational risks for a label such as Stella McCartney are higher, with the exchange of ethics for scale feeling like an uneven trade that dilutes the English brand’s established identity.
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In contrast, French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus has been a perfect fit for Nike. Their latest release is the Nike x Jacquemus Moon Shoe, a minimalist sneaker based on the athletic brand’s lightweight Moon Shoe (originally conceived in the 1970s by Nike co-founder and track and field coach Bill Bowerman). The waffle-soled running shoe delivers the same kind of disruptive technology in the high-fashion package favoured by luxury customers.
Like Nike and Jacquemus, the best exchanges tend to blend savoir faire with marketing reach. The worst are lazy, such as the Porsche x Smeg coffee machine that’s dressed up in red and the number 23 to emulate the Porsche 917 that won the 1970 Le Mans race.
Mass retailers elevating their position in the market with strategic luxury collaborations, and fleeting high-low fashion partnerships between prestige designers and fast fashion, have now become so commonplace they often barely register. As with Uniqlo’s recent partnership with Cecilie Bahnsen, the celebrated Danish designer known for her romantic minimalism, I blinked and I missed it.
