In-Depth: The New MoonSwatch ‘Strawberry Moon’ (With Special Moonshine Gold Hand) Proves The Madness Isn’t Over Yet
Yesterday, Swatch unveiled the latest MoonSwatch Mission to Moonshine Gold. It’s called the Strawberry Moon (for obvious strawberry reasons), and it hit Swatch boutiques across the globe. It’s the latest in a year-plus frenzy that we like to call “MoonSwatch Madness.” But before we get to the present-day details, it helps to put in context how we got here.
MoonSwatch Origins
MoonSwatch, as a concept unto itself, is something I thrust myself into when it was nothing more than a teaser campaign on the Instagram accounts for Omega and Swatch – until it was real. I followed the thread to the mammoth release of the MoonSwatch collection in New York City, covering the Times Square store launch and experiencing the scores (and scores) of eager souls waiting to get their mitts on one of these Bioceramic goodies.
The lines in New York for the first MoonSwatch launch. Photo: Kasia Milton
The MoonSwatch Mission to Mark. Photo: Greyson Korhonen
The MoonSwatch Mission to Jupiter. Photo: Greyson Korhonen
And boy, did they wait, and boy, did they celebrate their combined achievements because the watch, by design, could not be purchased online. Having gone a Week on the Wrist with MoonSwatch and awarding it our Watch of the Year for 2022, I thought I had closed that chapter of manic watch enthusiasm. And then 2023 arrived (when Daniel Craig famously wore a Mission to Neptune) in dramatic fashion as Swatch proved it had something else up its sleeve: Mission to Moonshine Gold.
Moonshine Gold
Photo courtesy of Masaharu Wada
It all started in February after the brand teased a special release in a select number of cities: London, Milan, Tokyo, and Zurich. That meant not the United States (and not New York). Luckily, our friends at Hodinkee Japan were on hand to capture the first person in the world to pick up the new Moonshine Gold MoonSwatch, with its distinct feature being the chronograph seconds hand coated in Omega’s proprietary gold material.
The first owner of the Mission to Moonshine Gold. Photo: Masaharu Wada
And we thought that would be that. But it wasn’t. What came next was another global launch of the Mission to Moonshine Gold – this time including New York City. When our own Mark Kauzlarich put his camera lens on the watch, we saw that it wasn’t the exact same Moonshine MoonSwatch. This one had a tiny differentiator, a small number three imprinted on the chronograph hand, signifying the third full moon of the year. “Okay,” we thought, “that’s something unique for the specific buyers on that day.”
But it didn’t stop there. May arrived, and our own Brandon Menancio ended up in Las Vegas for Moonshine launch number three. You’d have thought it’d have a small number four imprinted, but that would’ve been too easy. Instead, the lume on the chrono hand was filled with a pink color as an homage to the Pink Moon. It was obvious then (if it hadn’t been already), that monthly MoonSwatch launches were going to be the theme of 2023.
The Pink Moon MoonSwatch released in the United States in Las Vegas. Photo: Brandon Menancio
Flowers And Strawberries
The Flower Moon MoonSwatch.
Fast forward a month, and we got the same hand but coated with floral imagery inspired by the way night-blooming flowers take the shape of a full moon. And then there’s the latest launch announced and released yesterday in locations around the world: The MoonSwatch Mission to Moonshine Gold “Strawberry Moon.” And this might just be the craziest execution yet.
Much like May’s release, this one is inspired by the Strawberry Moon, only the way it’s manifested on the watch isn’t as subtle. Instead, we have an almost wallpaper-like array of strawberries throughout the central chronograph hand. Like every prior release this year, the watch was made under the specific moon referenced (in this case, a strawberry moon in June) and comes with a specific certificate attesting to that fact. This is all kinda of crazy, but it’s also keeping the attention and excitement alive around the watch.
The Strawberry Moon MoonSwatch.
I can’t tell you how many people I know – people outside of the watch world I generally operate in – that ask me about MoonSwatch. It has remained firmly a part of the cultural zeitgeist. I had a friend at a party lament to me recently that the Swatch store near him closed just before the initial launch of the MoonSwatch, leaving him out of luck lest he travels to find one. When I bought my car, the representative in the finance department told me how his brother had been going nuts trying to find a certain planetary edition. I didn’t start these conversations, by the way.
Swatch, and Omega, by proxy, do not need to make drastic adjustments to the MoonSwatch collection. The magic sauce continues to work. Prospective buyers continue to flock to Swatch stores worldwide, aware that it is the only way to procure one. Crowds still show up to the launches, as documented by our own staff as recently as two months ago.
Lines in New York for the Moonshine Gold launch in April. Photo: Mark Kauzlarich
This Mission to Moonshine Gold campaign strikes me as a way to connect MoonSwatch with the ideals of collecting. While the normal models can be hard to find (clears throat, Neptune), they are not limited in any way. You can conceivably buy every single one if you’re willing to put in the work. The Moonshine models are finite, only available one day at a time, one day per month. Once that day is done, the watch is gone, turned to nothing more than Moondust.
Photo: Kasia Milton
The new Strawberry Moon model seems to me to be a precursor to just how crazy these watches can get. We’ve got strawberries on a chrono hand now. Next, do we move away from having Moonshine Gold relegated strictly to the one hand? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. This latest release saw the largest number of cities and countries included (basically all of them, from the Swatch perspective), so anything is possible. And the premium to buy this limited edition is a mere $25 over the price of a normal MoonSwatch, which runs $260.
While there’s no guarantee this Moonshine campaign will last the entire year, I anticipate seeing at least a few more of these special launches. And they will be a test of the demand and the excitement of those who continue to venture out to their nearest Swatch boutique and cause these pieces to sell out. Until the next full Moon.
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The HODINKEE Shop is an authorized retailer of Omega and Swatch watches. For more information on the MoonSwatch, visit the Swatch website.
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