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Hopeful customers recently queued overnight at selected Swatch stores around the world to get their hands on one of the £335 timepieces from the Royal Pop collection (made in collaboration with a high-end Swiss watch-maker). Emotions ran high, crowds swelled, and in some cases, blows were exchanged. It was a bit like Black Friday in May.
So what was so great about the watches? According to two marketing experts, they provide consumers with two things: ownership of a little bit of luxury, and more importantly, the chance to make a quick profit by immediately re-selling them online.
Elsewhere, we look at the legal status of bees in medieval Ireland, and why the UK government has put digital ID cards back on the agenda.
If you value what experts have to say about bees and politics and everything else besides, please consider supporting us. Thank you very much.
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Luke Salkeld
Commissioning Editor, Business
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EPA/SALVATORE DI NOLFI
Roman Pavlyuchenko, University of Bath; Delphine Dion, ESSEC
Limited edition mass-market products can swiftly become valuable assets.
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Bees attacking a threat, as depicted in a medieval manuscript.
Douai Cuincy Library Network
Chris Doyle, University of Galway
Medieval Irish bees had a legal status because they were classified as domestic livestock.
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PhotoGranary02/Shutterstock
Tim Holmes, Bangor University
The government says digital IDs will modernise services. Critics fear exclusion and creeping surveillance.
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World
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Marcin Kaczmarski, University of Glasgow
China dictates the pace and areas of its cooperation with Russia.
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Politics + Society
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Tom Yarrow, Durham University; Paolo Heywood, Durham University
In a society obsessed with reform, change and progress, we often overlook the essential work of maintenance.
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Angus Harrison, The University of Law
The declaration does very little to change how countries may legally approach immigration control.
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Arts + Culture
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Eva Cheuk-Yin Li, King's College London
Taiwan Travelogue’s hands-on translation makes it a worthy winner of the International Booker 2026
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Helen Vassallo, University of Exeter
The unsolved murder of a young girl in Argentina sends shockwaves through generations of a religious family.
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Environment
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HaDi MaBouDi, University of Sheffield
Bees may have tiny brains but they can make rapid and accurate choices.
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Health
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Benedicta Quaye, Lancaster University
Vitiligo is one of the most common skin disorders out there.
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Chris Seenan, University of Stirling
Patients need to know what treatment can realistically offer, especially in a wellness market built on exaggerated hope.
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Ahmed Elbediwy, Kingston University; Nadine Wehida, Kingston University
NAD+, NMN and resveratrol are marketed as anti-ageing breakthroughs, but human evidence remains mixed and incomplete.
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Science + Technology
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Noemi Procopio, University of Lancashire; Paola A. Magni, Murdoch University
Forensic scientists would conduct the film’s infamous moth cocoon scene rather differently today.
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2 March - 30 September 2026
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19 - 20 May 2026
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