Anyone Here Manage to Get a MoonSwatch Yesterday?

[The Amazing Virginian]

In case you haven't heard, Omega/Swatch released their new MoonSwatch yesterday in a couple of dozen stores around the world. Basically, it is a Swiss quartz Swatch that looks a lot like the classic Omega Speedmaster that went to the moon. Retail price: $260.

Lines of hundreds of people or more in some places. Police had to be called in. Some folks camping out more than a day in advance. Some stores apparently only got around 50 watches. It was a worldwide phenomenon - and marketing genius, IMO.

Anyone here manage to get their hands on one?

Seems like a cool item to me, especially for $260. But not for the $4000 and more that folks are flipping them for. Or for $260 plus 20 or more hours of your time waiting in line. Yurz.

Theoreticallly they will be more widely available at some point in the future (maybe a year or two from now?), and if that happens I'll probably pick up a couple. Then again, I like Swatches. I recently sold off almost all of my "nice" watches . . . Rolex GMT, Rolex two-tone DateJust, Breitling SuperOcean, Omega Seamaster, Glashütte, Tag Heuer . . . Still have a couple, but my daily wearers are now a Bulova Precisionist and a Luminox. If I manage to get one of these MoonSwatches, it might replace one of those.

 

[dannyp]

I'm a little surprised at just how much hype this generated, especially considering how many people I actually see wearing non smart watches anymore. Makes me wonder how many were flippers and how many were actual enthusiasts.

As for the watch itself, I'm conflicted on it overall. On one hand, I think it's cool for Omega to do something more affordable that pays tribute to the moon watch. After seeing some of the unboxing vids though I can't help but also think that this is a $260 Swatch with plastic pushers and crown. I'm also curious to see how well the 'bio-ceramic' holds up over time.

 

[bdmicarta]

I'm a little surprised at just how much hype this generated

I agree. I see very few people who wear interesting watches or have enthusiast watches, it's like us knife enthusiasts are in a world where people either don't carry knives or carry gas station knives. Even at that I would think that there are more knife enthusiasts than there are watch enthusiasts. And consider that these watches were only announced to the public a couple of days ago. It appears that in all the major cities there might have been 1,000 people lined up at each store, and some stores were reported to have had 150 watches.
I want one, but just like limited knife releases I won't stand in line and fight crowds to get one and I won't pay inflated scammer prices to get one.
There were listings on ebay before the watches were released. I wonder how those sellers knew that they would be able to get one or more versions of the watch. I watched a video from one city and the guy that was at the head of the line got pushed aside when the mob hit the store at time of opening.
Yes it's a plastic watch but I don't mind for 4% of the price of the real thing. I sometimes wear a Luminox Navy Seals watch, a plastic watch. I bought it used for $50 because it was all beat to crap but it works for me as a beater watch. It sells on Amazon new for more than the Moonswatch, although I wouldn't par that for a new one.

 

[Danke42]

They are going to be sold by Swatch online. If you want one and aren't near a Swatch store then just wait.

 

[Stelth]

I never heard about a Moonswatch until this thread. I like the looks of it but I like a day and date on my watch. I have no interest in "smart watches". I wear my Seiko "Dracula" everyday.

 

[The Amazing Virginian]

They are going to be sold by Swatch online. If you want one and aren't near a Swatch store then just wait.

Yep. Eventually, they claim. Months? A year or more? Who knows?

I understand it uses a "regular" Swiss quartz movement. The accuracy would typically be rated at something like +/- 15 seconds a month. At that price point, IMO it should have a thermo compensated high accuracy quartz movement. Something accurate to less than 15 seconds a year. My Bulova Precisionist can be had for le$$ than this MoonSwatch and is rated to an accuracy of +/- 10 seconds/year, but in practice my example has been less than two seconds a year. That all having been said . . . I still want a MoonSwatch. LOL.

 

[Danke42]

Yep. Eventually, they claim. Months? A year or more? Who knows?

I understand it uses a "regular" Swiss quartz movement. The accuracy would typically be rated at something like +/- 15 seconds a month. At that price point, IMO it should have a thermo compensated high accuracy quartz movement. Something accurate to less than 15 seconds a year. My Bulova Precisionist can be had for le$$ than this MoonSwatch and is rated to an accuracy of +/- 10 seconds/year, but in practice my example has been less than two seconds a year. That all having been said . . . I still want a MoonSwatch. LOL.

No timeline yet but I would expect it to be soon. They can build a huge buzz with this type of launch and then feed the demand through their online channel. There are not a lot of those Swatch stores out there. If they can't feed demand soon then they wasted the potential of the release.

I had told myself no more quartz/battery/plastic watches but sounds like I"ll be having to break that promise.

And there should also be size choices in the strap for future releases.

 

[The Amazing Virginian]

If they release too many more too soon, there are going to be a lot of pissed off hombres out there who spent, $1K, $2K, $4K . . . highest I've seen was about $10K for the Neptune version which seems to be the rarest. They might not want the bad backlash from that, so maybe they hold off a few months to cool things down. FOMO is a powerful force!

FAIK, they've ginned up some phoney eBay accounts and are selling their own watches there for thousands a piece. Maybe as many pieces are going out the back door as went out the front. They could easily clear millions that way.

 

[Danke42]

If they release too many more too soon, there are going to be a lot of pissed off hombres out there who spent, $1K, $2K, $4K . . . highest I've seen was about $10K for the Neptune version which seems to be the rarest. They might not want the bad backlash from that, so maybe they hold off a few months to cool things down. FOMO is a powerful force!

FAIK, they've ginned up some phoney eBay accounts and are selling their own watches there for thousands a piece. Maybe as many pieces are going out the back door as went out the front. They could easily clear millions that way.

People spending that much for a plastic watch third party won't care. It's all about them gaining temporary social media clout.

 

[Wasty]

Well, I've said it over at Watchuseek, and will say it again here:

The concept is very nice, and the Mission to Uranus is a joke that will keep on giving, but with the typical 30m water-resistancy, the watch is a fun thing to wear, but does not fit my hunting scheme.

The hype that was generated+the craziness surrounding it, is unseen and unheard of.

A stroke of genius from Swatch, that owns both brands.

I maybe get one when the hype is over, but rn, I am more excited by the Casio PRW51, that has all the features I want and none of the features I don't like...

 

[bdmicarta]

I understand it uses a "regular" Swiss quartz movement.

When you see a chrono with subdials at 2, 6 and 10 that usually signifies a Swiss Ronda movement. I don't know of a mechanical chrono that looks like that, they usually have subdials at 3, 6 and 9 although they don't have to use all 3 subdials and they can rotate the movement in the case so that the subdials occur elsewhere.

 

[The Amazing Virginian]

When you see a chrono with subdials at 2, 6 and 10 that usually signifies a Swiss Ronda movement. I don't know of a mechanical chrono that looks like that, they usually have subdials at 3, 6 and 9 although they don't have to use all 3 subdials and they can rotate the movement in the case so that the subdials occur elsewhere.

Swatch Group owns ETA. Why wouldn't they use ETA's Quartz Chronograph movement, Caliber 251.274?

Either way, it's not high accuracy quartz, so you're probably looking at something like +/- 15 seconds a month rating.

 

[Danke42]

A bigger question is who will wear a few at the same time in classic Swatch style.

 

[bdmicarta]

Swatch Group owns ETA. Why wouldn't they use ETA's Quartz Chronograph movement, Caliber 251.274?

You're likely right. It seems that all the 3-eyed european brand chronos I've seen in the past use the Ronda movement. I wasn't even aware of a similar ETA movement.