Author: Editorial Team

Swiss watchmaker Swatch and luxury partner Audemars Piguet are betting big on a Gen-Z “product drop” culture — buzzy, often limited launches that have helped spur sales from Labubu dolls and Nike trainers to Popeyes chicken. The maker of popular colourful watches has stirred debate — and seen some punches thrown — with a product launch of its Royal Pop pocket watch collection with Audemars Piguet, which forced it to close some stores and limit queues. In Milan shoppers outside a Swatch store ended up in a scuffle, to get their hands on the Pop Art style watches blending the…

AlfaNow, a cross-border payments platform built for how the world moves money today, has announced its official expansion into the Sultanate of Oman through a partnership with First Exchange, approved by the Central Bank of Oman. Through this collaboration, AlfaNow’s services are now live across all major cities of the Sultanate of Oman through First Exchange branches. This rollout enhances access to reliable, convenient remittance services for customers across the country. Oman remains a key remittance hub in the Gulf region, supported by a diverse expat population and strong outbound flows to major corridors. AlfaNow’s entry in the market aims…

Swiss watchmaker Swatch was forced to shut stores and cap queues after the launch of its Royal Pop pocket watch in collaboration with Audemars Piguet drew large crowds and triggered brawls among shoppers. The watches combining Swatch’s 1980s pop-art style with the Audemars Piguet octagonal bezel sell for $400 to $420, far below the many thousands of dollars commanded by Audemars Piguet’s luxury watches, leading many to buy and then flip Royal Pop timepieces online at inflated prices. Social media posts and video showed queues of shoppers at stores in New York, London, Barcelona and Dubai at the weekend, with…

Netflix, in partnership with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), has announced the launch of the third edition of its regional Women in Film program, continuing its commitment to supporting and developing emerging women filmmakers across the Arab world. The program will provide training and development opportunities to 35 participants in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait. Building on the success of previous editions, the Women in Film III: Training Through Practice aims to nurture the next generation of creative talent, while supporting women’s representation in the film industry and strengthening the region’s creative…

Swiss watch giant Swatch said Monday insufficient organisation by shopping centres contributed to scuffles at around 20 stores worldwide over the weekend as clients raced to buy a limited-edition timepiece. Hundreds of people waited through the night or longer hoping to get their hands on the “Royal Pop” timepieces, billed as a “disruptive collaboration” with the luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet. But things turned ugly in New York and several European cities as well as in Thailand on Saturday, with fights breaking out and some security gates vandalised at some of the 220 stores offering the watches. In France, officers fired…

The My FarmWell Application project has been named the winner of the 4th edition of the Excellence and Creative Engineering Award presented by the Society of Engineers UAE under the Pioneer Engineering Project category. The project received recognition as the “Best Small Project”, highlighting its contribution to sustainable water management, smart agriculture, and artificial intelligence-driven engineering solutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the award description, a small project is defined as a project valued at up to AED 50 million and completed within the last three years. Since the launch of the award, 79 winners have emerged…

Ultra Gobi, one of China’s most established outdoor endurance races, will stage its first international event in January 2027 with the launch of Ultra Gobi AlUla, bringing its established race formats to the historic oasis destination in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The 21st edition of the original Ultra Gobi takes place in the Gobi Desert in October 2026, followed by Ultra Gobi AlUla from January 12 to 20, 2027. The announcement marks the first time in the series’ 20-year history that Ultra Gobi will take place outside China. Located approximately 300 kilometres north of Madinah, AlUla lies along the ancient Incense Road and…

Moataz BinAli, CEO, Magna AI. The enterprise technology landscape has long been shaped by Global System Integrators (GSIs) such as Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Capgemini, TCS, and Infosys, built on a clear value proposition of integrating complex, multi-vendor systems at scale. For decades, this model delivered results, helping enterprises design, implement, and manage increasingly sophisticated technology environments. But as the pace of innovation accelerates, the limitations of this approach are becoming harder to ignore, and the model is beginning to fracture in a more fundamental way. AI is at the center of this shift. It is not simply another layer to…

The Saudi Export-Import Bank (Saudi EXIM Bank) recorded growth in its credit facilities during the first quarter of 2026, reaching SAR13.23 billion, up 20.8% from SAR10.95 billion in Q1 2025. This increase reflects the bank’s ongoing efforts to support Saudi non-oil exports and enhance their competitiveness in international markets. The credit facilities were allocated across a variety of financing and export credit insurance products. Export financing totaled SAR4.33 billion in Q1 of 2026, marking an increase of 0.6% compared to SAR4.31 billion in Q1 2025. Additionally, exports covered by export credit insurance rose to SAR8.90 billion, up 33.9% from SAR6.65 billion…

Landmark partnership marries 110 years of industrial domain expertise with Claude’s frontier AI to accelerate the safe, enterprise-scale deployment of physical AI across critical infrastructure worldwide. Dubai — Hitachi, Ltd. has announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic PBC, the AI safety company behind the Claude family of models, to strengthen its Lumada 3.0 business model and accelerate the safe deployment of frontier AI across mission-critical industries. Announced jointly from Santa Clara and Tokyo, the alliance unites Hitachi’s 110-plus years of domain expertise in IT, operational technology, and products with Anthropic’s frontier AI capabilities. The companies will focus on advancing system…