Nick Hayek, Swatch’s Savior
The company is expected to sell as many as half a million Omega MoonSwatches this year, according to industry analyst LuxeConsult, in a highly successful collaboration that made the moribund Swatch brand hot again.
Photo illustration: 731; photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
There was bedlam at Swatch retailers when the MoonSwatch hit stores in March. And the obsession hasn’t cooled: The timepiece, a joint effort by the company’s Swatch and Omega brands, is still selling out in minutes when boutiques replenish their supplies. Nick Hayek’s vision married the Omega Speedmaster’s classic design with vibrant Swatch colors, at a budget price of $250. The watch now can go for more than $500 on the secondary market.
Sales of the 11 versions, each themed with a “mission” to the sun, moon or a planet and made of a plastic-ceramic mix, have boosted interest in other Swatch models; since the release they’re up 40% in Switzerland from 2021. (The country serves as a bellwether for other markets, the company says.) In addition, sales of the $7,000 original Speedmaster, lionized as the first watch worn on the moon and the inspiration for the MoonSwatch, have surged more than 50% in Omega stores globally. The partnership put Swatch “back into the spotlight,” Hayek said. Now “everybody’s interested.”