Omega and Swatch know that collaborations are a surefire way to turn heads. Louis Vuitton teaming up with Supreme broke hypebeast brains. Gucci and North Face caused hysteria. In the last
week, we saw both Mercedes-Benz x A$AP Rocky's AWGE and Mercedes-AMG x Palace steal spotlights. Even in the watch world, we've seen the Patek Philippe x Tiffany's insanity, plus no-brainer pairings: TAG Heuer x Porsche, Breitling x Triumph, Girard Perregaux x Aston Martin. They all act as one of two things: either an extension of something you already have (an Aston Martin), or an entry point to something you aspire to have (a Porsche) but can’t afford. Some collaborations get labelled as gimmicky, some just quietly go about their way and work.
But this Omega and Swatch joint mission—the Omega x Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch—takes the watch collaboration to the next level. The journey started nine months ago in a meeting room in Biel with Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann, Swatch creative director Carlo Giordanetti and Omega head of product design Gregory Kissling and Hayek all tasked with coming up with a collaboration that will hit the spot. And the Speedmaster MoonSwatch collection is what they decided on, as the CEO of Swatch Group Nick Hayek tells GQ.
“Collabs are very fashionable, between Gucci, Balenciaga, whoever is working together. But often it's just a marketing gig where you put the logos from one to the product of the other one and that's it. Here we wanted to go a step further, because we have an iconic brand like Omega, that has a product that is an icon in the Swiss watch industry, the Speedmaster. And on the other side, Swatch is an icon because it has saved the Swiss watch industry. When everybody was only focusing on luxury, Swatch was there, and Swatch is an innovator,” says Hayek. It was his late father who was responsible for saving the Swiss watch industry and today, with this collaboration, Hayek Jr may well be the man responsible for evolving it and shaping the future.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Omega x Swatch Speedmaster MoonSwatch: