Last month saw the death of Nicolas G. Hayek, the co-founder of the Swatch Group that many people hold responsible for the rejuvenation of the Swiss watch industry, which during the early eighties was in turmoil.
The late Nicholas Hayek, founder of Swatch
In the mid seventies the Swiss watches dominated the global market, but by the end of the decade cheap, accurate electric watches from the Far East soon managed to encroach on the Swiss stranglehold on the watch marker and the Swiss industry took a serious decline at the beginning of the eighties. It seemed that Swiss watch making would be resigned to a page in history at this point, but that was until the introduction of Swatch. Whilst the Swatch models were hardly luxury time pieces they gave the industry the boost it needed as these Swiss watches became fun, disposable commodities that anyone could afford rather than the stern, traditional heirlooms that the Swiss made watches of the past were. This allowed the Swiss industry to gain the upper hand over the cheap Far Eastern imports, as a low cost, but reliable watch was now being produced in Switzerland too.
Ironically, it was the cheap battery powered Swatch that helped to reclaim the Swiss watch industry from mass marketed Far Eastern products and allowed traditional, mechanical watches to still be manufactured in Switzerland to this day. It’s arguable that without Swatch providing such a boost to the failing industry in Switzerland that many of the well respected luxury watch companies that still enjoy a great deal of success today may have ceased to be. So, next time you’re admiring expensive Omega or Breitling watches in a shop window remember that without the cheap, plastic mass produced watches of Swatch that the high quality top of range Swiss time pieces you’re looking at might not be in there.