ABSTRACT
The “Swatch” is a quartz (or analogical) watch that is welded in plastic, plain, reliable, very inexpensive to manufacture, and possesses the quality and the durability of traditional Swiss watches. Thanks to the styles, the motifs, and the infinite number of colors that have been created over the years, it is more than just a functional object. It is also an aesthetic and emotional one. The breakthrough design has turned it into a fashion accessory in never-ending renewed collections. For some of us, Swatch is even an object of art, a sought-after collector’s item. On March 1, 1983, the first Swatch watch appeared on the Swiss market. Today, “Swatch” is found among the iconic brands of the world. More than 550 million watches have been sold since it was first launched. Before the Swatch, it seemed impossible to mass-produce and sell a Swiss quality watch for barely 50 Swiss francs, while still making comfortable margins. As mentioned before, the story of this watch is seemingly so well known that it seems rather pointless to go back to it. All the same, since the early 1980s, the official story told by the Swatch Group, encouraged by the general management, and reinforced by an overall tendency to analyze the watch from the distribution point of view of the existing product show that the real origins of the Swatch are, in fact, unknown. This period and this story teach us a lot about how you make innovation, and that is where our interest lies.
