Surprise new gold MoonSwatch due this week, but is it coming to your city?

(Image credit: Omega)

published 6 March 2023

Almost a year on from the pandemonium of the MoonSwatch launch, Swatch has teased the launch of a new model.

The company posted to Instagram on Sunday (5th March) to say a new model called Mission to Moonshine Gold will be revealed two days later, on 7th March. The teaser is somewhat vague, revealing only the name of the watch and a gold-hued photo of the moon.

Swatch’s existing MoonSwatch collection follows the same naming convention, with the watches named after the planets of our solar system. There’s Mission to Mars and Mission to Pluto, for example, so while this new model isn’t named after a planet, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the Mission to Moonshine Gold.

A post shared by Swatch (@swatch)
A photo posted by on

The name also links back neatly to Omega, which uses ‘Moonshine Gold’ for its precious-metal version of the Speedmaster, on which the MoonSwatch is based as we found out in our MoonSwatch interview. There are several models of Moonshine Speedmaster, some with gold dials, straps and cases – and they all have five-figure price tags.

Will the MoonSwatch Mission to Moonshine Gold be the first metal MoonSwatch? Will it be made of gold? We’re going for the former and not the latter, but given how unexpected the first MoonSwatch was, we’d be foolish to take anything off the table just yet.

There’s one thing we’re sure of though – the new model will undoubtedly be difficult to buy. While the regular MoonSwatches are still constantly out of stock at Swatch retailers, the new gold model will be even more sparse. Swatch’s teaser lists just four locations for the 7th March launch.

Along with their on-sale times, these are:

Nihonbashi, Kabuto One, Tokyo, Japan: 6:30pm JST
Paradeplatz/Peterhof, Zurich, Switzerland: 7:00pm CET
Piazza Affari/Galleria Meravigli, Milan, Italy: 7:00pm CET
The Royal Exchange, London, UK: 6:00pm GMT

Have you started queuing up yet? You probably should if you’ve any chance of getting one…

For more watch inspiration, check out the best digital watches you can buy today.

Alistair is a freelance automotive and technology journalist. He has bylines on esteemed sites such as the BBC, Forbes, TechRadar, and of best of all, T3, where he covers topics ranging from classic cars and men's lifestyle, to smart home technology, phones, electric cars, autonomy, Swiss watches, and much more besides. He is an experienced journalist, writing news, features, interviews and product reviews. If that didn't make him busy enough, he is also the co-host of the AutoChat podcast.