Here Comes Swatch & Blancpain's First Collab of 2024
Swatch's collaborations are showing no signs of slowing down in 2024, though an OMEGA MoonSwatch collab may not be on the table as the first drop.
Instead, Swatch might be making its next watch collaboration even bigger. Swatch x OMEGA? Try Swatch x OMEGA x Blancpain. Or not.
On January 8, Swatch posted a video on its official Instagram account with the words “Ocean of Storms” and a date: January 11, 2024, the first day of the new moon and 2024's first moon event.
“Ocean of Storms" refers to Oceanus Procellarum, a famous crater on the Earth's moon that experts claim was formed by moon volcanos millions (if not billions) of years ago.
That's a suitably spacey reference for Swatch and OMEGA, who've channeled moon inspiration into their Moonswatch timepiece collabs over the past year...
But then there's also the ocean angle, which adds a fresh wrinkle into Swatch's new collab.
Naturally, this post immediately saw an explosion of speculation from Moonswatch-obsessed fans, with one follower postulating the potential of a three way Swatch x Blancpain x OMEGA collaboration.
Swatch's collaborative Blancpain watches are all ocean-inspired, you see, while OMEGA's are moon-inspired.
So you can understand the rumors of a three-way collab.
Other commenters have noticed that the font used in this new mysterious Instagram post is the same bold font used during the last Swatch x Blancpain teaser, so they figured that perhaps OMEGA wasn't involved after all.
Then again, if OMEGA was not involved and it was a singular Blancpain link-up, Swatch would likely be hoping for a more hyped reaction that the one it received during its initial release, which was debuted with an equally-as-mysterious ad when it dropped in September.
The big reveal, which came on January 9, fulfilled the latter prophecy.
"Introducing OCEAN OF STORMS, the sixth watch in the Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Collection," Swatch announced on Instagram. Unfortunately for OMEGA Moonswatch collectors, this is a solitary Swatch x Blancpain venture.
Fortunately for Swatch, though, the timepiece was fairly well-received by fans, who appreciated the comparably affordable timepiece's understated design.
We're talking about a $400 iteration of a watch typically priced upwards of $14,000 so nothing to sneeze at.
This being a Swatch x Blancpain venture, though, it does beg the question as to why the brands hit the spacey influence so hard, given Swatch and OMEGA's mastery of the outer space theme, what with the Moonswatch and all.
Who's to say? Either way, don't expect the latest Swatch x Blancpain watch collab to sit around when it hits Swatch's international stores on January 11.
Though it proved to be well-received by the Swatch die hards, the Blancpain collaboration was comparatively under the radar when juxtaposed against the MoonSwatch series so the boost doesn't hurt no matter what.
Swatch ended last year with a collaborative variation on the original Mission to the Moon that OMEGA and Swatch dropped back in 2022, that less than a week after releasing a trio of colorful luxe Ostrich leather MoonSwatches.
This, though, was the cherry on top of an extremely MoonSwatch heavy cake that saw one collaborative watch released every month through 2023.
At first, it proved virtually impossible to buy any of the aforementioned Moonswatches at retail, although since the initial boom in late 2022, OMEGA and Swatch appear to be better equipped to deal with the overwhelming demand for their coveted limited edition watches.
Clearly, no matter what, Swatch looks to be continuing 2024 where it left off: creating hype with collaborative watches. And if said hype can be anywhere near as serious as it ended up being through 2023, Swatch is going to be in for another blinder of a year.
Now, roll on January 11!
