New Yorkers create encampment for $400 fad watch filled with paid line-sitters and a shocking overdose

By Thursday evening, the line outside the Times Square Swatch store resembled a small roadside encampment.Not an unusual sight for anyone in the resale game, looking to make a hefty profit in the aftermarket off a coveted release.Nearly half the block between Seventh and Eighth avenues was scattered with foldable camping chairs resting against police barricades.

Trash bags, empty coffee cups and personal belongings littered the sidewalk.A group of men took shifts holding spots while others hit the Marriott Marquis Hotel’s eighth-floor bathroom to clean up or get a quick nap in their car.One woman inched her chair closer to the store as she screamed, “I’ve been here for five days!”A middle-aged woman with strawberry blond hair appeared to have overdosed at around 5:32 p.m.

while waiting in line.Slumped over in her foldable chair, an NYPD officer arrived on the scene to revive her with Narcan.All of this was for a watch that wouldn’t even go on sale until Saturday.The frenzy centered on the latest collaboration between Swatch and Audemars Piguet — a limited-edition, bioceramic pocketwatch that merges Audemars Piguet’s iconic Royal Oak with Swatch’s vibrant POP line from the 1980s.The retail price ranges from $400 to $420, depending on the colorway, but the resell margins were promising, with early offers into the thousands.“You gotta have a lotta balls to be out here,” Luis M., a watch enthusiast and reseller behind HypedUpNYC, told The Post.

He and his crew had been camping outside the store since Monday.Although he resells everything, he wants to keep this watch.

Someone had already offered him $3,500 for it, though.“You gotta know what you’re doing, to be honest,” he said.Luis said the group rotates shifts overnight and uses nearby hotels to clean up before returning to the line.“Once the store shuts down, we run home, shower, change,” he said.“My car’s right here — just making use of what we can do.”But he and his friends...