Everyone past the age of 30 knows Swatch. We’ve probably worn a timepiece bearing its logo on the dial at least once in our lives. I remember mine. It was a small watch with splatters of colour on the dial, and a strap in a shade of neon that I suspected could be seen from outer space.
Swatch’s watches definitely had personality, but they generally veered towards the smaller end of the spectrum. Until now, that is. The brand recently unveiled its new Big Bold collection comprising six alliterative colourways – black, blue, blood, bubbles, beauty and blanco.
The Big Bold watches are large, thanks to the 47mm watch case, yet it doesn’t overwhelm the wrist due to the clever curvature of the lugs. The dial features contrasting 3D prints that match the strap’s design and the hands are coated in SuperLuminova so that you can tell the time in the dark.
And since the Big Bold collection was made for the streets, it was only natural that the brand tied up with legendary streetwear brand A Bathing Ape to create a limited-edition Swatch x A Bathing Ape Big Bold collection comprising six watches. The latter riffed on the range by paying homage to five of their favourite cities – Bern, London, New York City, Paris and Tokyo – as well as one that saluted the world.
Besides its iconic camouflage print and ape head (which you can spot on the hour hand in the gallery above), A Bathing Ape took the iconic colours of each city and represented it on the watch. I was in Tokyo during the launch and joined the queue on 1 June when it was officially released to the Japanese public, and I had never seen such a manic yet orderly crowd.
If the throngs of people were anything to go by, the limited-edition collection is going to fly off the shelves when it’s released to Singapore and the rest of the world on 15 June. There are 1993 (to represent the birth year of A Bathing Ape) pieces of the New York, Tokyo, Paris and London editions, and only 983 pieces for the Bern, Switzerland one.
However, if you can’t get your hands on the limited edition range, well, the Big Bold collection is out now in all Swatch stores. It’s priced at S$140 per piece.