Less than three months after the launch of the Snoopy MoonSwatch, Swatch has this morning dropped not one but three new models, this time all based on our home planet.
The new watches, according to Swatch, have been inspired by the fact that “all throughout history, people have wondered what the world looks like from above.”
Mission on Earth Lava takes its bright red hue from volcanic molten rock, with the chronograph seconds hand in orange, as a nod to the Omega 1968 Speedmaster Moonwatch “Ultraman” model.
Mission on Earth Polar Lights is vivid, almost neon turquoise representing the aurora borealis—the natural phenomenon where charged particles from the sun interact with molecules in the Earth’s upper atmosphere to produce the signature light show. Its dark blue dial has tiny silver-colored flecks inspired by aventurine glass dials, something of a trend in watchmaking right now. The distribution of these flakes is different on every model.
Mission on Earth Desert is the least striking of the three, as its beige tone is supposed to evoke the seas of sand on the planet’s surface. The key hook for Swatch is that all three natural phenomena can be seen clearly from space.
The news comes right after TAG Heuer released a revamped F1 watch, which some consider to be its reply to the MoonSwatch despite it costing $1,350, considerably more than Swatch’s offering. TAG's Formula 1, which appeared in 1986, was at the time viewed as the brand’s answer to the cheap, original Swatch which had revolutionized the market three years earlier—but boasting a much higher spec.
The reborn TAG Heuer Formula 1 | Kith is a limited-edition collaboration with Kith, which marks the first time TAG Heuer has ever cobranded a watch dial. Featuring Kith’s “Just Us” slogan on the dial, it’s a clear nod to the watch company’s keenness to engage with Gen Z consumers.
The three new MoonSwatches are priced at $270 (£240 in the UK) and will be available from this Saturday, June 15, in select Swatch stores worldwide, and as with previous releases, only one watch can be purchased per person, per day, and per Swatch store.
Swatch is staunchly sticking with its refusal to sell the MoonSwatch online, despite Nick Hayek Jr., chief executive of Swatch Group, admitting to considering the possibility post-launch of the initial batch of 11 Swatch watches paying homage to the iconic Speedmaster Moonwatch, but battery-powered, in bright colors, and made from Swatch’s “ecoplastic” alternative, Bioceramic.
“Ask me in four months if ecommerce can play a role,” he told WIRED in July 2022. “Perhaps. I don't know.” Nearly two years later, still no new MoonSwatch has been officially sold new online, nor does it look likely they will be any time soon.
In March, the much-awaited Snoopy MoonSwatch dropped, and while it too was equipped with the chronograph function, it also sported a moon phase, showing the different lunar phases on the subdial at 2 o’clock, complete with the Peanuts character lying on the celestial satellite—the first time Swatch ever combined a moon phase with a chrono.
Different from these vibrant (well, two of the three, anyway) new models, the two Snoopy MoonSwatches were monochrome affairs in all black and all white.
The Omega and Snoopy space connection stems from NASA’s Silver Snoopy award, a silver pin first awarded in 1968 for outstanding achievements related to flight safety or mission success. Omega was given the Silver Snoopy in 1970, after Jack Swigert used his Speedmaster on the Apollo 13 mission to time a critical 14-second rocket engine burn, ensuring the crew's safe return to Earth. Interestingly, it wasn’t until 2003 that Omega made the first in a series of Snoopy Speedmasters to commemorate this.
The colorways of the original MoonSwatches were inspired by planets in the solar system: the Mission to the Sun in bright yellow, the Mission to Neptune in deep blue, the Mission to Jupiter in beige and orange, and of course the black Mission to the Moon, resembling the Omega original.
Clearly now hooked on the revenue generated from its super successful Omega collaboration, after mining the solar system, its sister brand's Snoopy connection, and now these multiple Earth models, one wonders where Swatch's lucrative MoonSwatch mission can go next.
