Swatch

Origin
"Swatch" began development in the early 1980, under the leadership of the then ETA SA's CEO, Ernst
Thomke with a small team of enthusiastic watch engineers led by Elmar Mock and Jacques Mller, The engineers
of Swatch designed the case back of the watch as a movement main plate (platine). This concept led to the
thinnest watch in the worldthe Delirium, which debuted in 1979.

Conceived at the beginning as a standard timekeeper in plastic, Franz Sprecher, a marketing consultant
hired by Thomke to give the project an outsider's consideration, soon led the project into what it has become: a
trendy line of watches with a full brand identity and marketing conceptinstead of developing just another
watch collection, which could have soon been matched by the competition.

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 and Citizen in the 1960s and 1970s and to repopularize analog watches at a time when digital watches had achieved wide popularity. The launch of the
Swatch brand in 1983 was marked by bold new styling, design and marketing.

Lebanese entrepreneur, Nicolas G. Hayek, who, with a group of Swiss investors, took over a majority
shareholding of Swatch during 1985 in the then, between ASUAG and SSIH, newly consolidated group under the
name Societe Suisse de Microelectronique et d'Horlogerie, or SMH, became Chairman of the board of directors
and CEO in 1986 (who later significantly changed its name to Swatch Group), further masterminded its
development to reach its now major worldwide Swiss watch brand status within the lower end of watch prices.

This combination of marketing and manufacturing expertise restored Switzerland as a major player in the
world wristwatch market. Synthetic materials were used for the watchcases 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.[5] The Swatch watch was also known as the savior, to many of the swatch-watch style fans.

Diversified offering
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).

Swatches have become fashionable objects, generating specialized models (the "Flik-Flak" for children)
quartz chronographes, automatic and automatic chronographes movements, and even some diamonddecorated Swatches. The company also produces watches with seasonal themes.