Overview
- Swatch, which issued a statement Monday, asked buyers not to form large groups and said Royal Pop will be available for several months, with sales paused in places that restrict queues.
- Following Saturday’s crowded launches, police interventions and scuffles forced temporary closures or suspensions in France, the UK, the United States, Dubai and Spain.
- French police dispersed about 300 people with tear gas outside a Paris‑area mall, while crowds at Swatch’s Times Square store in New York prompted reinforced security.
- In Barcelona, lines returned to Passeig de Gràcia on Monday in calmer conditions after weekend shutdowns, as some locations reopened under tighter controls and others stayed paused.
- Lille’s city hall said it plans legal action over blocked public ways, underscoring how scarcity pricing around a €/$400 Swatch–Audemars Piguet pocket watch and lucrative resale have turned “accessible luxury” drops into public‑order challenges.