Friday

About Swatch Watches

Swatch Boliblu Ladies Watch

Swatch Sliding Wave Watch

Back in the ’80s, I can remember coveting a Swatch watch more than any other brand of watch.  Why?  They weren’t uncommon or expensive, nor were they elegant, classy or fine-quality.  What they were was bold, youthful, and fun.

The Swatch brand was born in 1983 upon the merger of two failed industry giants, SSIH (of Omega and Tissot fame) and ASUAG (the world’s largest producer of watch movement parts).  The new Swiss company thought to create a revolutionary kind of watch, with bold style and fewer movable parts.  Their idea was to completely break from the old style Swiss watch, known not only for that elegance and classiness mentioned above, but also for a correspondingly high price tag.  The company’s new motto was affordability, style, and whimsical imagination.  Swatch established a flashy marketing campaign and the brand took off as everyone and anyone wanted one… or two… or three.  The company was savvy enough to realize if the watches were affordable and colorful, customers would see the Swatch as not just a watch, but as a playful fashion accessory, and consequently, purchase more than one.  Today Swatch still makes watches with pizazz (along side other models that are more circumspect) and they are just as fun to wear now as they were back when.