Thursday, June 30, 2011

Swatch

By most accounts, Swatch saved the Swiss watch industry. "In a few short years [in the late 70s], the value of Swiss watch exports was cut in half, the Swiss share of the market dropped from over 50 to 15 percent, and competition from Asia slashed the number of watchmaking jobs in Switzerland from 90,000 to fewer than 25,000. Swiss watchmakers were suddenly an endangered species." Long story short, the Swiss watch industry hired a consultant name Nicholas Hayek to figure out how to save it; he proposed selling hip, plastic quartz watches for cheap to ramp up volume; and almost 400 million have been sold since 1983, spearheading a massive Swiss revival. The Swatch Group now also includes a number of Swiss brands that, all together, dominate the low- and mid-range Swiss watch market.

Swatch, of course, is thought by many people of as primarily a youth brand, since Swatches are wacky and plastic. That's not altogether wrong, but in fact, adults do most of the buying and a lot of the wearing. Ownership must taper off in the over-30 demographic, but many models, in both price and design, are squarely aimed at aging hipsters. I owned a fantastic Swatch mechanical a couple years ago. I ended up trading it off because it was too small for my fat wrist. But I've always expected more Swatches would find their way into my watch locker.



My most recent Swatch instead was purchased as a gift for my daughter. We got talking watches the other week, Swatches came up, we looked at a few online, and she fell in love with some striped models. Used Swatches are abundant and can be had cheap. This one is a vintage (1984) "Miss Pinstripe" kids/ladies model. Almost certainly someone in my high school was wearing it's sibling the year of it manufacture. Swatches were everywhere back then. This one cost me $14 shipped. The crystal is cracked at about 4:00, but it's not too visible, and my kid will put more cracks in it forthwith. But for a 27-year-old plastic watch, it's in great shape and keeps perfect time. And she loves it.

I'll probably pick up another Swatch or two for myself sometime. Just 'cause I'm a watch guy. But this Swatch I'll enjoy the most. Swatches and teens, they just go together.

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