Do you have a watch-crazy friend?
They may have been part of the queue at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) for what is possibly the last Omega x Swatch Moonswatch.
Long queues appeared at MBS for those who wanted to buy the watch.
Here is what happened.
Long Queues Were Seen for the Omega x Swatch Watch
Yesterday, a Facebook post made rounds online showing the queue for the Omega x Swatch Moonswatch at MBS.
The caption of the post said that the user was number 47 in the line.
Photos attached to the post showed snaking queues of people sitting down while waiting. There were red barricades in place to keep the queue orderly.
It appears that the queue was anticipated as there was a standing information board on-site which provided the “Queue Rules”.
Amongst some of the rules were requirements that the purchases were on a “first come first served basis”, and each person was only entitled to buy “one Mission to MoonShine Gold Watch”.
Customers were not allowed to try the watches and needed to be at least 16 years old to purchase the watch.
Refunds, returns and exchanges were not intended to be entertained.
To prevent people from hogging the queue, those in the queue were not allowed to leave the queue unless they wanted to give up their queue spot. The exception was that “toilet breaks of only ten minutes” were allowed.
The Facebook poster also shared that only 50 watches were available at the MBS location.
Another netizen shared that about 100 watches were available at the Vivo City branch.
These watches are possibly the last release of the popular watches in a while as there has not been any timelines announced as to when the next batch of watches would be hitting stores.
Why the Omega x Swatch Watch Is So Popular
If you have not heard of the Omega x Swatch Watch, this is a quick lowdown on what it is and why it is so popular.
These watches are part of Swatch’s Bioceramic MoonSwatch Collection. There are a total of 11 unique watches as part of this collection.
Each watch corresponds to a mission to a different space location, including the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
They are all of different colours corresponding to the celestial bodies that they are inspired by.
For example, the watch which is inspired by Mercury is a striking black, while the watch inspired by Venus is a powdery pink colour.
Swatch has stated that the watches are part of a “special collaborative collection between Swatch and OMEGA”, but they “aren’t part of a limited edition”.
This is good news for those who want to buy the watch in the future. Indeed, Swatch says that fans of this watch “should indeed be able to get your hands on one”.
What may be carrying the craze for this collection is that the watches fuse “the most innovative Swatch BIOCERAMIC material with the key Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch design elements”.
This means that those who manage to get their hands on the relatively cheaper watch may be getting a great deal, as Omega watches are known to be notoriously expensive.
Who doesn’t love a good deal?
In fact, Swatch watches retail at $372 each, while the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch costs a minimum of $9,000 each.
It seems that the hype for the watch has been an ongoing thing.
After all, the top saga in Singapore in 2022 appeared to be the Omega x Swatch saga. This was part of the findings reported in the “Year in Search 2022” report done by Google, which tracks the searches shaping nations around the world.
In fact, the saga was so poignant because it caused chaos and even involved police officers.
When the watches were previously available in Singapore back in March 2022, the demand for the watches exceeded expectations, and queues were rowdy.
The police had to be roped in to maintain order.
There were witness accounts from the scene about how more and more police officers were gradually seen as the queues started to surge out of control.
Mr Kim, a 35-year-old watch enthusiast, shared with The Straits Times that there were almost 50 people waiting for the watches at 5.30 am. At that time, about two police officers promptly arrived on the scene to regulate the relatively manageable queues.
However, the number of people trying to join the queue started to grow bigger and bigger, and it became difficult to tell where the queues started and ended. At least six other police officers were quickly deployed to the scene to prevent the situation from escalating.
At around 8 am in the morning, the crowd had swelled to over 1,000 people. Yet additional police officers were added to the scene to maintain order.
However, despite the best efforts to demarcate proper queueing lines, there were some minor accidents which occurred at the site.
As there was a lot of pushing and shoving by those eager to get their hands on a watch, some people were crushed in the crowds. There were reports that at least one person had fainted in the crush of people eager to buy the watches.
The incident gained so much traction that even one of the Ministers commented on the issue.
Minister for Law K. Shanmugam posted about the “ugly incident” which occurred while the queue was in place as an individual was seen shouting at a police officer amidst the crowds.