For those of you who don't know swatch is a swiss watch company that creates cheep and affordable good working swiss watches, however they are definitely not your typical watch from physical appearance to a rich history.
In the time Swatch was created (1980s) the Swiss watch industry was suffering big time. (article about the industry sinking here... called 'Quartz Crisis') The sink in the industry was from a combination of a soar in the mass production of 'new' digital watches in Asia and the start of an economical depression in Switzerland. At this point people were more likely to buy a cheep watch than a complicated expensive swiss watch. The return of the industry came with the help and ideas of many, yet the way seemed impossible. A group of people from the ETA watch company (ETA makes parts for watches in my very own home town, to learn about them click here) decided to make a new, modern, and inexpensive watch. In order to make it inexpensive they would need to cut down on some of the specialties that made watches so special... the parts. Most watches had at least 100 parts, each part purchased and put together by hand. This many parts makes a watch very complex and expensive... so the idea of swatch was to put a watch togther in less parts (around 50). To accomplish this seemed crazy at the time. It would be like making lasagna with only peanut butter and crackers. After a lot of hard work and planing Swatch was able to create their first watch. The popularity of Swatch soared and saved the Swiss watch industry allowing both new and old watches to continue being made. Since then they have a lot more styles and types, but the price is still dramatically lower than an average Swiss watch (ranging from 60-110 CHF). If you want to look at some of the Swatch watches on their website click this link. I hope you enjoyed this educational story!
I wanted a Swatch so bad when I was in high school. They were so cool!!
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