New Swatch launch was 'chaotic', shoppers say

The launch of a new line of watches - which attracted big crowds outside Swatch stores in the UK and Europe over the weekend - has been described as "chaotic" and "disorganised" by disgruntled shoppers.

A crowd of several hundred built up outside Swatch's branch in the Liverpool ONE shopping complex on Saturday, causing the shop to close for "safety considerations", with other closures across the UK.

The Royal Pop pocket watches are not available to buy directly online and retail at £335, but collectors say the resale value is much higher. One, Mikey, of Liverpool, said he was frustrated genuine collectors were losing out after the "chaos".

Swatch urged people not to turn up in large numbers.

One man was arrested in Cardiff on Saturday, while police were called to reports of people "making threats" outside the Liverpool store.

An event was cancelled in Dubai, while police officers were also called to launches in France and Switzerland.

Speaking to the BBC, Mikey said: "I've been here for three days in a row now.

"We queued up on the release date on Saturday and then obviously was let down, the staff didn't open the doors.

"They've just been rude to us every single day. I've contacted headquarters of Swatch to try and find out off of them when they're going to release the watches. They can't give us an answer."

Mikey said he understood there had been safety concerns, but said since the crowds had died down he still was unable to purchase the watch.

He also criticised the purchasers who he said were making it difficult for genuine buyers.

"I personally want the watch for myself, I don't want it to resell," he said.

"All these people that are coming to get the watches for resale, they're ruining it for the people that actually want the watch.

"That's the reason why it's going so crazy now, because it's all the resellers that are coming to try and get this watch for £350 thinking they'll sell it for £2,000."

Vrayas Mehra, 21, who lives in Liverpool, told the BBC he was hoping to source the watch for clients in his family's gems and jewellery business.

The Swatch collection is a collaboration with Audemars Piguet and Mehra said when the latter releases a new watch there was always a "lot of craze in the market".

"When they were officially supposed to launch there was a big crowd so I do understand that it would have been a safety incident for them, but Sunday and even today there's no one really but they still refuse to sell us the watch for no absolute reason," he said.

"They don't have any legal reasons why they can stop us from buying it.

"I mean, there's many brands which go crazy on launch days, Apple and other brands but they manage it much better than anyone else and they've just been very unorganised."

Mehra also complained about the manner of staff in the Liverpool branch, describing them as "rude".

"Respect is everything, you give respect to get respect and that's how I work to be honest."

Swatch said at the weekend that the collection would be available for "several months" and urged people not to turn up to its branches in large numbers.

The BBC has asked the company for further comment about the launch.

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