Swatch Group boss Nick Hayek has excited 1.2 million watch fans.Image: nik egger/chmedia
The wait is over: Now it becomes clear who can buy Nick Hayek’s new watch – and whose application was rejected.
July 27, 2026, 3:49 p.mJuly 27, 2026, 3:49 p.m
Florence Vuichard / ch media
The probability of being one of the lucky ones was a modest 0.16 percent. Ultimately, around 1.2 million people worldwide applied to buy one of the new moon watches from Swatch in 1969.
Now there is a hail of rejections. “We regret to inform you that your Electronic Swatch Timepiece Application (Esta) has been declined,” says Nick Hayek’s Swatch group to all those who cannot buy a watch. “We regret to inform you that your application has been rejected.” Then the Swatch team thanks you for your interest. There is nothing more. “It’s a shame,” says one reader. But she expected a rejection.
The applicants will be informed from today, Monday, as a spokeswoman said upon request. There is no more information – neither about the process nor about triage. Nick Hayek had already made it clear earlier that he wasn’t going to let his hand be seen here: “There is no justification from the USA if someone is refused entry into the country after filling out the Esta form.” Swatch will not explain why someone doesn’t get a watch.
32 questions to ask when entering the USA
Anyone who wanted to buy one of the 1969 moon watches with 11 grams of gold for 500 francs had to fill out an Esta form with 32 questions, just like for a trip to the USA. The applicants had 2 hours and 15 minutes to do this. The first question was: “Have you ever given a president a gold table clock?”, an unmistakable swipe at the Swiss delegation of managers and entrepreneurs who visited Donald Trump in the Oval Office in November 2025 and gave him a gold table Rolex.
Hayek’s Esta authority also wanted to know whether people had ever made derogatory comments about the moon or about the watch brands Swatch or Omega on social media? What did the two letters “OM” on the watch stand for or what was the price of gold on July 21, 1969, the day of the moon landing? Or which artist should design a Swatch watch. And if the application is approved, will the watch be resold straight away?
There are only 1969 pieces of the new Swatch moon watch.Image: zvg
Anyone who checked yes here is unlikely to be part of the group whose application was approved. It will be easy to check whether the lucky ones were all telling the truth. The colorful pocket watch Royal Pop, a collaboration with the independent watch brand Audemars Piguet, launched in mid-May, saw the first watches land on the online sales platforms just a few hours after the start of sales.