The Real Swatch Story

Contrary to press releases, the Swatch is NOT a revolutionary concept and horological design novelty. According to news reports, Swatch was first to pioneer an approach to watchmaking that allows total automation and reduces the number of parts by half. It took 200 engineers, two years and $8.5 million, to come up with a way to reduce the number of parts to a mere 51 trimming production costs by over 80%. The movement is built into the plastic case which serves also as the movement main plate and then a laser seals the crystal. If the Swatch breaks down the owner can only throw it away -- it can't be repaired. For your information, this so-called new technology and design is not completely new. I bring to your attention an important development which took place fourteen years ago (1971) and was presented at the Swiss Watch Fair. A *plastic mechanical watch* put out by Tissot Watch Company, Tissot started to investigate the field of plastics in 1952 and in 1971 introduced *Astrolon* a movement and case in which the wheels, pinions, escapement, case and plates were all cast from plastic. The number of parts had been reduced to 52 from 90 and by moulding the whole movement, Tissot eliminated 40 time - and cost - consuming operations. Oiling was unnecessary since the plastic was self-lubricating. And assembly work was reduced, requiring only 15 distinct, mostly semi-automatic, operations that were done on an assembly line.

Because the new plastic watch works were cheaper to produce and easier to assemble than conventional metal models, Tissot hoped that this new invention would revolutionize watchmaking and would inject huge profits into their company and the distributors of this product under many different brand names. Indeed this watch watch was sold in the U.S.A. by Sutton Time, Dynasty, Sears & Roebuck and others for prices ranging from $22.50 to as low as $8. Though the watch was so light at 5/8 of an ounce (less strap) that it almost floated, this was not a children's toy. Its light weight enhanced its shock resistant qualities which enabled it to withstand the rigors of repeated shock trials. Being plastic, its non-magnetic qualities, too, were enhanced. The watch also withstood normal water immersion tests at 30psi. Furthermore, Tissot's engineers claimed that the timepiece was so reliable and accurate that it could even compete with a chronometer.

So here you see the striking similarities between the Swatch and, undoubtedly its predecessor, the Astrolon, which never became a hit with the consumer. Why then does most of the industry remember nothing about this big invention of little more than a decade ago (now 27 years)? It is incredible that Tissot Watch Co. is not given any credit for their novel idea, which truly was the original concept used in the manufacture of the Swatch. The answer may be because the whole success of Swatch depends on marketing and news releases. Swatch's own destiny seemed uncertain at the start. Though the product caused a big stir when it was introduced in Switzerland, it didn't exactly fly off the shelves when it was test-marketed in parts of the U.S.A.

The Swiss, this time, realized that they needed professional marketing help. To sell Swatch, the manufacturer hired a crack marketing director from outside the hidebound watch industry - Jacques Irniger, a veteran of Colgate-Palmolive. With a heavy advertising campaign created by McCann-Erickson in Switzerland and adapted by the agency in New York, they bet on high stakes. This high-style marketing and aggressiveness conducted with Swatch was not a prevalent method used by the usually conservative Swiss in the 1970's and not tried with the Tissot Astrolon *plastic mechanical watch*. This time around, the Swiss used Swatch's high-tech and high-fashion mystique to recapture their share of the market. That's the difference!