Moonwatch mania from Palermo to Milan: crowds, queues and shoving to grab the last watch
People in front of the shops since last night, the police intervened in several places. Fans, collectors, but also people who bought the 250 euro watch to resell it for 1,500
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From Milan to Palermo, passing through Turin, Verona, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples.
Moonwatch is a craze all over Italy, where the race to grab the latest Swatch watch has started. Queues, crowds, interventions by the police, people lined up from Friday evening and in some cases even from Thursday.
The object of desire is a bioceramic watch, in different colors, with the Swatch and Omega logos, which reproduces the iconic Speedmaster Moonwatch, a model worn by the Apollo 11 astronauts during the first moon landing.
In Milan there have been queues since early morning, in particular in Corso Vercelli, where the intervention of local police officers was necessary because the long line of buyers had also occupied part of the carriageway. Queues also in corso Buenos Aires, via Montenapoleone and piazza Gae Aulenti. Crowds also in the Arese shopping center for the 250 euro watch.
In Rome in a few hours the shop in via del Corso posted a sign: "Collection finished". Those who arrived at lunchtime were left empty-handed: “There was a media tam tam. And some have been camping since Thursday, ”the sales people explain, incredulous because the stock for the launch was limited, but it is not a limited or numbered edition and the stores will be restocked again.
Even in Palermo there are those who remained in line for 24 hours: in via Ruggero Settimo around 100 people gradually gathered, starting yesterday, in front of a shop that had a stock of 116 copies. Some have brought a chair and a thermos of coffee with them, others have found a makeshift bed. “As you can see - says Aurelio, a boy who stayed in line for hours, the queue is quite long. The first arrived yesterday morning ".
Long queues also in Verona , where the local police intervened on the spot. And so in Florence , where the police urged the store staff to better manage the queue after a series of shoves caused the complaints of some people in the queue.
Even in Naples at the opening of the shop in the center this morning there were already hundreds of people waiting. An elderly man, making his way onto the sidewalk, shouted: “But do they give the bread for free? Do you know that there is war? ".
In Bologna , watches sold out by mid-morning and in the center of Turin the queue took up an entire block. “I have been here since last night, I equipped myself with a backpack, a folding chair and blankets", says a thirty-year-old. "It is not the first time - adds a boy - I have done the same thing in front of Apple on other occasions. Then came the pandemic ... ".
Not only enthusiasts and collectors, many have decided to spend a sleepless night to resell the watches at prices much higher than the market price of 250 euros. It is the reselling phenomenon, some watches - witnesses confirm - were immediately resold even at the price of 1,500 euros. “Jackals”, some comment. An incomprehensible phenomenon also in light of the fact that the company has ensured that the stores will be restocked again in the coming weeks.
(Unioneonline / L)
