SWATCH

THE EARTHLY TIME KEEPERS SINCE 1983 .

INTRODUCTION
Swatch is a brand name for a line of wrist watches

from the Swatch Group. The Swatch Group Ltd. is a Swiss company and the biggest watch manufacturer in the world (about 25% of the sales). It was formed in 1983 through the merging of the two Swiss watch manufacturers ASUAG and SSIH, and took its present name in 1998 (formerly SMH Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watch-making Industries Ltd).

HISTORY AND ORIGINATION

ORIGINATION
The major reason for the birth of Swatch was the

introduction of quartz technology. In 1970 quartz technology changed the nature of competition in the watch industry once again. Quartz used an integrated circuit made up of numerous electronic components, resulting in a watch that was comparable in accuracy to Swissmade mechanical watches. These watches were based on electronics and allowed more sophisticated functionality than their mechanical counterparts.

CONTINUED.
The name "Swatch" is a contraction of "Second

Watch" - coined by Nichole Lopez because the new watch was introduced with a new concept of watches as casual, fun and relatively disposable accessories. Swatch Group owns the following brands: Breguet, Blancpain, Jaquet Droz, Glashtte Original, Lon Hatot, Omega, Tiffany & Co., Rado, Longines, Union Glashtte, Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Pierre Balmain, Hamilton, Flik Flak and Endura n, and relatively disposable accessories.

HISTORY
In 1982, Swatch was conceived and it was

introduced on the market in Switzerland in March 1983. 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 in the 1960s and 1970s, and to re-popularize analog watches at a time when digital watches had achieved wide popularity

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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.

PRODUCT LINE AND RANGES

FIRST COLLECTION
The first collection of twelve Swatch models was

introduced on March 1, 1983 in Zrich, Switzerland. Initially the price ranged from CHF 39.90 to CHF 49.90. 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.

OTHER LAUNCHES.
Swatch Originals: The Originals are plastic cased

watches. They are available in various sizes, shapes, and designs. The originals consist of various sub-families as well. Swatch Irony: The Irony family contains all the metal cased watches produced by swatch. Swatch Skin: The Skin family contains two sub families: 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, hence the name Swatch Skin.

SWATCH ORIGINALS

IRONY COLLECTION

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Swatch Beat: The Beat family, launched in 1998, is

incorporated across the three existing families. Beat is a decimal time concept introduced in 1998 and marketed by Swatch as an alternative, decimal measure of time. One of the goals was to simplify the way people in different time zones communicate about time, mostly by eliminating time zones altogether. Swatch Bijoux: The Bijoux line is the jewelry line that Swatch released in the new millennium. It partnered with Swarovski to encrust the Bijoux line of watches.

BIJOUX COLLECTION

BEAT COLLECTION

SKIN COLLECTION

NEW PRODUCTS.
The Colour Code collection presents a seemingly infinite

variety of colours, and the New Gent Collection combined the brands signature flair for colour in plastic with a big case offering plenty of space for designers to play with eye-catching dial visuals. The New Gent Lacquered gives Swatch transparency a twist with cut-away dials revealing watchworks components of many different colours and assembled: the colours are chosen at random from a broad range, and assembled in combinations that make each watch unique.

SOME NEW LAUNCHES

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Another recent expression of the innovative Swatch

spirit is Swatch Touch, a colourful new line of trendsetting timekeep-ers with big-screen LCD dials and a touch-sensitive zone in place of pushbuttons. Swatch Touch brings streetwise trends to the wrist, showing inspiration from urban rhythms and electric sounds, and from the sheer exuberance of sports. The signature Swatch material, plastic, is back in a big way (Chrono Plastic) with all kinds of exciting and trendy new colours, shapes and sizes.