Saturday, June 13, 2026

Swatch Gives One of Its New Audemars Piguet Pendant Watches An Unfortunate and Kinda Racist Name If Read in English

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There are plenty of watches in the world that have black dials.

A lot of them have brand names that use the word ‘black’ or ‘noir.’

Now only one that I can find uses “negro.”

Ocho Negro is the name of one of the new pendant watches announced in a collaboration with Audemars Piguet.

There are 8 in the collection, each retailing for $400. They all have clever names. There’s Huit Blanc, Otto Rosso, OTG Roz, Orenji Hatchi — which could mean Orange Eight, or former Senator Orrin Hatch — and so on.

But Ocho Negro? Um, I don’t know what the means in Swiss. In Spanish, it means Black Eight. Which would have been fine. But in English? “Which watch did you get? The Negro?”

Not in 2026. Or really, any year.

Is anyone still in charge of product development? I may return to Timex.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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