Swatch 40 years banner

On March 1st, 1983, ETA-group launched Swatch to the world. This ground-breaking watch is widely credited with saving the Swiss watch making industry –a bold claim for a cheap plastic quartz. Its wasn’t that the sales success of Swatch somehow raised enough money to offset the crushing effects of the quartz crisis, the repercussions were far more profound and can still be sensed to this day throughout the watch market.

‘Swatch’ is a portmanteau word, produced not from the combination of Swiss and Watch as many people assume, but a contraction of ‘Second Watch’. At a time when multiple watch ownership was rare, Swatch pitched itself as the back-up ‘fun’ option. Affordable, eye catching, and ultimately disposable, Swatch was a non-serious purchase, and most importantly a repeat purchase.

Introducing SwatchIntroducing Swatch

Initial fears in the watch press that this automated, human-free, production line watch might cause even more job losses in an ailing industry were unfounded with Swatch’s broad appeal re-focusing the public’s attention on watch buying in general.

Within months of Swatch’s launch other brands premiered ‘me-too’ competitors, plastic watches with Swiss-made quartz movements with more conventional construction. Swatch benefitted from their early rejection by traditional watch and jewellery stores, pursuing fashion-focused mass market retailers. They amplified this effect, destroying their competitors with their wide range of designs, seasonal collections, and headline-grabbing media campaigns collaborating with artists and designers. They actively targeted the youth market playing to their shared ‘disruptive’ attitude.

Swatch – 40 years since watches became collectables

The result was that this non-serviceable, disposable watch became collectable. Owning multiple, or even dozens of watches became commonplace. As these young collectors grew up, their spending power grew, and their taste expanded to more traditional watch brands.

Swatch – 40 years since watches became collectables

Less well known, but in many ways more crucial to the survival of mechanical watchmaking was the launch of the Swatch Automatic in 1991. Although several high-end watch brands made some or all of their own components, the production of hairsprings, levers, and escape wheels, (collectively known as ‘assortments’) is limited to a few specialist manufacturers, the largest of which was Nivarox Far. The decline in demand during the ‘Quartz Crisis’ had leftNivarox Far in trouble and so they had approached a number of companies including Patek Philippe and Breitling for help. The only rescuer to step forward was SMH (Swatchgroup) who bought the company outright. They still needed work for the employees to do, and while Swatch Automatics were about as basic as it gets, the volume that they represented kept the company ticking along until the renaissance of mechanical watches arrived.

Introducing Swatch

Key anniversaries are moments for reflection, and it is easy to lapse into hyperbole. In this case, given their impact on multiple watch ownership and the collectability of timepieces, it might not be overstating the case to say that Watch Collecting as a concept can trace itself back to 1983 and that first plastic Swatch.

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