Did Swatch save Swiss watchmaking?

“Swatch!”

Now cue up some totally tubular ’80s TV footage–like a group of trendy new romantics out for an expensive night on the town, The Fat Boys wrecking up the place, or perhaps the biggest pairs of shoulder pads you’ve ever seen strolling three wide. Brand promotions included tie-ins with some of the day’s biggest properties, like Danny Sullivan, the Thompson Twins, and Huey Lewis and the News.

But Swatch was more than fun and games–and music and skateboarding and breakdancing and BMX and all the other stuff that made the ’80s so memorable. At the same time, the company was also preserving the Swiss watchmaking heritage for future generations. 

The quartz crisis of the ’70s–the influx of inexpensive, battery-powered digital watches from Asia–had decimated Switzerland’s mechanical watchmaking industry. Nicolas G. Hayek, brought in to oversee the liquidation of two major Swiss watchmaking properties, realized an opportunity: Fight back with a fun, low-cost, analog Swiss timepiece. The plastic-bodied Swatch was born.

The first Swatch hit the market in March 1983. Retail price in the U.S.: as low as $19.99. Success came quickly, with the Swatch Group becoming the world’s most valuable watchmaker within five years. 

Several of today’s most storied Swiss brands? They’re now owned by the Swatch Group. Among the company’s current holdings: Blancpain (founded in 1735), Breguet (1775), Omega (1848), Tissot (1853) and Longines (1932).

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