Swatch

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Swatch

Swatch is a brand name for a line of wrist watches from the Swatch Group, a Swiss conglomerate with vertical control of the production of Swiss watches and related products. In 1982, Swatch was conceived and it was introduced to the market in Switzerland in March 1983.

ch was originally intended to re-capture entry level market share lost by Swiss manufacturers during the aggressive growth of Japanese companies such as Seiko

Seiko

, more commonly known simply as Seiko , is a Japanese watch company....
in the 1960s and 1970s, and to re-popularize analog watch

Analog watch

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Origin

Swatch was originally intended to re-capture entry level market share lost by Swiss manufacturers during the aggressive growth of Japanese companies such as Seiko

Seiko

, more commonly known simply as Seiko , is a Japanese watch company....
in the 1960s and 1970s, and to re-popularize analog watch

Analog watch

Analog watch is an example of a retronym. It was coined to distinguish analog watches, which had simply been called "watches," from newer digital watches; see watch and clock....
es at a time when digital watches had achieved wide popularity. The launch of the new Swatch brand in 1983 was marked by bold new styling and design. The quartz watch was redesigned for manufacturing efficiency and fewer parts. This combination of marketing and manufacturing expertise restored Switzerland as a major player in the world wristwatch market. Synthetic materials were used for the watch cases as well as a new ultra-sonic welding process and the assembly technology. The number of components was reduced from 91 or more to 51, with no loss of accuracy.

A concept

In light of the economic state of the Swiss watch industry at the time of the introduction of the Swatch, its directors understood that it was not enough to offer a good watch. The watches needed to be attractive, cheeky and good fun, daring in design and aggressively priced, with high quality and innovative flair. The Swatch watches were high-tech and came in a variety of fashion and art designs.

Derivation of the name Swatch

The first meaning of the name "Swatch" was "Second Watch" -- because the new watch was introduced with a new concept of watches as casual, fun, and relatively disposable accessories. Today, the name Swatch also means "Swiss Watch", which stands for Swiss Made qualification of the Swatch watches.

The first collection

The first collection of twelve Swatch models was introduced on March 1, 1983 in Zürich

Zürich

Z?rich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Z?rich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne....
, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
. Initially the price ranged from CHF

Swiss franc

The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian Enclave and exclave Campione d'Italia....
39.90 to CHF 49.90 but was standardized to CHF 50.00 in autumn

Autumn

Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter, usually in late September or late March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....
of the same year

Year

A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, a "Martian year" is the time in which Mars completes its own orbit....
. Sales targets were set to one million timepieces for 1983 and 2.5 million the year after. With an aggressive marketing campaign and a very reasonable price for a Swiss-made watch, it gained instant popularity in its home market. Compared to conventional watches, a Swatch was 80% cheaper to produce by fully automating assembly and reducing the number of parts from the usual 91 or more to only 51 components.

Popularity

Swatches enjoyed their peak popularity during the mid-1980s. Such '80s fads included wearing two Swatches and using a Swatch as a ponytail band. Some models, like Pop Swatch, allowed wearers to attach Swatches directly to clothing. During this same time, Swatch introduced the idea of partnering with noted artists, including Keith Haring

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s....
and others. Artist watches gave a new cachet to what had previously been a trendy youth article.

Product structure

Diversified offerings

From the original cult plastic watches, Swatch has diversified its offerings considerably, and the company now sells more than a dozen different types of watches, including metal-bodied watches (the Irony series), diving watches (the Scuba series), thin and flat bodied watches (the Skin family) and even an Internet-connected watch that can download stock quotes, news headlines, weather reports, and other data (the Paparazzi series).

They have now become fashionable objects, generating specialized models (the "Flik-Flak" for children, semi-automatic movements, and even diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
-decorated Swatches). The company also produces watches with seasonal themes.

Product lines

There are five families under the swatch brand. The five families are

Swatch Originals The Originals are plastic cased watches. They are available in various sizes, shapes and designs. The originals have sub-families as well.

Swatch Irony The Irony family contains all the metal cased watches produced by swatch. They too come in different sizes and shapes.

Swatch Skin The skin family contains two sub families; which are Original Skin and Skin Chronograph. The original skin was introduced on October 6, 1997 as a thinner version of the original swatch watch. It is ultra thin, standing at 3.9 mm thin hence the name Swatch Skin. The swatch skin later went on to enter the Guinness world book of records as the world’s thinnest plastic watch. The Swatch Chronograph is just the swatch skin with a chronograph function. It has two additional buttons on the side of the watch.

Swatch Beat The beat family launched in 1998 and incorporated beat watches across the three existing family but adding twists. Swatch Beat is the digital line and integrate Internet Time

Internet time

Internet time was a common catchphrase that originated during the late-1990s Internet boom. In this period, people who worked with the Internet had come to believe that "everything moved faster on the 'net", because the Internet made the dissemination of information far easier and cheaper....
.

Swatch Bijoux The bijoux line is the jewelry line that swatch released in the new millennium. A company that is known for innovations and fashion it went the next step. It partnered with Swarovski to encrust their bijoux line and watches.

A fashion statement

Also in the mid-1980s, mainstream Swatch fashion statements came about in the rising hip-hop scene with the introduction of various colored and interchangeable watch faces and wrist bands (made of vinyl). Colors included bright, day-glow and pastels. The key standard accessory was the Swatch Guard, a thin, rubber-band like strip that would stretch over the watch face. A good number of "Swatchies" sported two Swatch Guards of different colors, twisted or braided together across the Swatch face. A second type of Swatch Guard was a 1/8"-thick hard plastic ring which encircled the face and snapped onto the sides.

Swatch Group

The Swatch Group is the world's largest watch company, and the Group has accelerated its acquisition of Swiss luxury brands in recent years. The Swatch Group owns the following brands: Breguet

Breguet (watch)

Breguet is a manufacturer of luxury watches, founded by Abraham Louis Breguet in Paris in 1775. Currently part of The Swatch Group, its timepieces are now produced in the Vall?e de Joux in Switzerland....
, Blancpain

Blancpain

Blancpain is a Swiss watch manufacturer, founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jaques Blancpain. Blancpain was saved from near bankruptcy by Jean-Claude Biver, an executive with Omega....
, Jaquet Droz, Glashütte Original

Glashütte Original

Glash?tte Original is a German watchmaking company founded in 1994 by the privatisation of VEB Glash?tter Uhrenbetriebe. This was an East German conglomerate formed in 1951 from the watch companies based in Glash?tte....
, Léon Hatot, Omega, Tiffany & Co., Rado

Rado (watch)

Rado is a Swiss manufacturer of watch, with headquarters in Lengnau, Switzerland. It is noted for its use of scratch-proof materials, a field in which it is considered a pioneer....
, Longines

Longines

Longines is brand of watch, originally a company founded by Ernest Francillon at Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Its origins can be traced back to the 1830s and it currently holds the oldest registered logo for a watch company ....
, Union Glashütte, Tissot

Tissot

Tissot is a Swiss watchmaker company founded in 1853....
, Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein

Calvin Richard Klein is an United States fashion designer. In 1968, he launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc.In addition to clothing, Calvin Klein also gave his name to a range of perfumes, including CK One and CK Be , now owned by Coty Inc....
, Certina

Certina

Certina is a Swiss watchmaker company founded in 1888 by Adolf and Alfred Kurth....
, Mido

Mido

Mido may refer to:* Mido , an Egyptian footballer.* Mido Hamada, a German-Egyptian actor.* Mido , a traditional Swiss watch brand owned by the Swatch Group...
, Pierre Bal-main

Balmain (fashion house)

Balmain is a fashion house that was founded by Pierre Balmain.In the period following World War II, Pierre Balmain was "a king of French fashion" and outfitted stars including Ava Gardner and Brigitte Bardot....
, Hamilton

Hamilton Watch Company

The Hamilton Watch Company was an American manufacturer of high quality Pocket watchwatches and wristwatches. The Hamilton brand name still exists in name as a division of a major Swiss assembler of production grade mechanical and quartz wristwatches....
, Flik Flak and Endura

Endura

Endura may refer to:* a practise of the Cathars, a ritualistic fasting in order to speed death* Endura-D, an engine built by Ford Motor Company...
.

Sport sponsoring & timekeeping

SWATCH FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour

For the current Swatch FIVB World Tour, see: Swatch FIVB World Tour 2008
Swatch FIVB World Tour 2008

The Swatch FIVB World Tour 2008 is an international beach volleyball competition.The tour consists of 15 tournaments with both genders and 9 separate gender tournaments....

The Swatch and FIVB (the International Volleyball Federation) signed the partnership deal in Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French language-speaking part of Switzerland, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva , and facing ?vian-les-Bains and with the Jura mountains to its north-west....
, Switzerland on Feb. 27, 2003. Swatch became title sponsor for the Beach Volleyball World Tour.

Swatch, being quite experienced in the field of innovations, has provided FIVB with financial support as well as timing and technical innovations, with the electronic scoreboards supply and speed of service measurements among many others.

Through its international partnership with FIVB, Swatch supports the growth of public and media interest in beach volleyball

Beach volleyball

Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympics team sport played on sand. Like other Volleyball variations of volleyball, two teams, separated by a high net, try to score points against the other by grounding a ball on the other team's court....
, appreciated worldwide as one of the most rapidly developing summer sports. As the company has continuously maintained links with the world of sports, the global sponsorship agreement with FIVB became another important step in that involvement.

Swatch also participates in all FIVB Beach Volleyball world tour events through establishing points of sales and organizing side and merchandising activities. As part of the partnership, the company also develop each seasons two Swatch watch dedicated to the SWATCH FIVB Beach Volley World Tour.