Origin

This concept was realised in the early 1980s, 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 Müller (see: [1]) , who had had the idea to use the case back as a movement main plate (platine), as it had been done to realise the flattest watch in the world, the Delirium, suppressing a lot of parts. And designed for easy assembling.

Conceived at the beginning as a standard timekeeper in plastic, Franz Sprecher, (see [2] ), a marketing consultant hired by Thomke to give the project an outsider’s consideration, soon led the project into what it has become: a fun “Brand” with a full brand identity and marketing concept, instead of developing just another watch collection, which could have soon been matched & killed 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 in the 1960s and 1970s, and to re-popularize analog watches at a time when digital watches had achieved wide popularity. The launch of the new Swatch brand in 1983, then led under the auspices of Nicolas G. Hayek, was marked by bold new styling and design.

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