Swatch and the Adventures of Not Being Too Late in the 80’s and Now

Can a watch change history? Can immigrants and refugees positively influence a culture if allowed and invited? Are watches able to resist oppression? Are Swatches still cool? Yes!

But is it too late? I don’t think so. I hope not.

In 1983 a new watch company hit department stores all over the world beginning a phenomenon like nothing seen in the watch and fashion world at the time. Why were they cool? Why did they matter? And what does it mean to not be too late?

In the fall of 1986 I drove to the mall and applied for a job at Silverman’s clothing store. I had some money burning a hole in my pocket and while there I was going to spend it. I went to the Orange Julius and got myself a smoothie. Did I notice that the girl at the Orange Julius had pretty blue eyes?

After looking at records and books I went to Kay Jewelers to look at their watches. The manager, Jeff, was there. He recognized me instantly and said hi as I stared longingly at the Movado Museum Classic watches. He chuckled and asked if I was getting an itch for another watch. I grinned and nodded. Jeff had helped me get my gold Seiko watch a few months prior.

“If you’re looking for a second watch, Sears has a clearance sale on Swatches. They’re getting ready for the Christmas line, you should check it out.”

I went into Sears. There it was underneath a print ad featuring the New Wave Band, Thompson Twins, all wearing Swatches. Among all the colorful Swatches there was one display model with scuffs on the crystal. It was simple black, but at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock it read in primary colors and green, “Don’t be Too Late”. The simplicity with subtle pop of color along with the scratch and dent price captured me.

Swatches were the most popular watches at the time. Now I had one too, and I loved it.

I ran back to Kay and showed it to Jeff. He noticed the scuff on the crystal, got some compound and a cloth. Within moments, the watch was perfect. I gasped a little as I said, “It’s perfect!” He told me that if it ever got scuffed again, a little toothpaste and a rag would fix it and he congratulated me on my first Swiss Watch.

Before we get to Swatch, we need to talk about how Switzerland came to be the center of the watch world. Oppressive religion. After the Reformation, the Lutheran church movement was sweeping across Europe. A man named John Calvin would be the head of the church in Switzerland. In 1541 he passed laws in Geneva that banned the making and selling of jewelry. While this was a victory for his religion, it was a loss for families that were multi-generational jewelers. You worked a family trade in those times. Suddenly, families were no longer able to work the only work they knew.

Refugees from France and Italy saw the plight of the jewelers and wanted to help the people in the country that offered them safe harbor. The refugees wanted to contribute. They taught the jewelers how to make time pieces. John Calvin could claim jewelry was vanity and a slight to god, but he felt that time keeping had a purpose useful to the church. The jewelers could work and survive. They also made sure they were pretty.

By 1601 the Watchmakers Guild of Geneva was formed. Swiss time pieces were becoming known for their craftsmanship, accuracy, and beauty. Geneva became crowded with more and more watchmakers and spread beyond Geneva. With so many watchmakers, there needed to be a supply of workers.

Farmers and their families could not harvest during winter, and they now had an opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their families making watches and watch parts when they couldn’t farm.

To this day the Jura region of Switzerland is still called watch valley and is home to the farms and watch manufacturing facilities.

In a misguided attempt by Calvinism to diminish beauty, the beauty of people working together created more beauty that would define a nation.

In the 1970’s something referred to as the quartz crisis was killing the watch industry world wide. A new technology for timekeeping was disrupting the market. Battery operated quartz watches were cheaper to mass produce and more accurate than traditional mechanical watches. Add to that the quartz tech could be placed in inexpensive digital watches.

Japanese companies and Chinese companies were tapping into this by producing cheap watches that the traditional watches could not compete with. Many did not adapt because they did not realize how quickly this new technology would change the landscape.

No one realized it. The first digital watch was an LED Hamilton Pulsar that cost far more than a Rolex. But in short time it went from a expensive niche few could afford to something you could buy at a five and dime. It happened seemingly overnight.

For Switzerland this was really bad as a nation and their economy.

Many watch brands that have existed since the 1800s closed their doors and the rest were struggling.

Factories were closing, people were being laid off, and a nation was losing part of their heritage. Banks ended up being the owners of watch companies that were part of history and they did not know what to do with an industry in their hands.

The banks reached out to Lebanese born Nicolas Hayek to oversee the liquidation of these entities for a dignified death. Hayek had a deep love and appreciation for the history of Swiss watches and would end up restructuring and rebuilding instead of liquidating.

As he was rethinking things with a dying industry in his hands the CEO of ETA, a company that made Swiss watch movements, came to him to show him something revolutionary.

It was a quartz watch design using better materials with an innovative bit of engineering that used only 51 parts. It was more an idea on paper from engineers than it was a reality, but Hayek liked the idea and they put a team on it.

An affordable quartz movement, but it was Swiss and it was better.

​In short time the movement was a reality. They had it! But what were they going to do with it?

Hayek had a bold idea. For the first time the Swiss watch industry was going to fight the quartz crisis on their terms with quartz. 12 Swatch watch designs hit the market in 1983.

Contrary to popular belief Swatch is not short for Swiss Watch. It is short for Second Watch. They were bold in design, inexpensive, and you could buy them in department stores as opposed to jewelry stores as the Swiss Luxury market had been used to. They collaborated with artists and fashion leaders to create something that went viral before we had that term.

Not only can anyone afford a Swiss watch, but it has bold designs that were as popular to teenagers as they were to fashionistas and celebrities. Everyone wanted one and everyone could afford one.

As they sold more watches in a phenomenon that was a force of nature, watch companies that were on the liquidation chopping block had an infusion of cash and life under the umbrella of the newly formed Swatch Group.

17 watch companies came off of life support. These include Blancpain, Breguet, Certina, Glashütte Original, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Longines, Mido, Omega, Rado, and Tissot.

This meant factories reopened, people had jobs again, the national pride was restored. By 2000 the Swiss watch world was the dominant maker of watches again with Swatch Group as one of the leaders offering Swiss watches for every price point from entry level $55 Swatch watches to luxury pieces that cost more than many luxury cars.

Front and center of that is still Swatch watches adored by people around the world.

Many people in America are swept away by Apple watches and other smart devices and that was starting to affect traditional watch sales again.

Yet again Swatch came to the rescue. In 2021 they released the Moon Swatch. It was every millimeter a recycled plastic lookalike of the iconic luxury Omega Speedmaster. But it had something that a clone did not have. It has Omega on the dial. It is an Omega, but it is also a Swatch.

The day the Moon Swatch released every Swatch store in the world had throng of people lined up outside. It made news worldwide. Apple has never seen anything like it outside of their stores on a new release.

Watches were in the news again. As you walk the streets you see more and more people wearing traditional watches and freeing themselves from the Pavlovian response that comes with an overpriced computer on your wrist programmed with forced obsolescence destined for a landfill in a few years.

Often it is a celebrity wearing a Swatch. Everyone from Ed Sheeran to Daniel Craig to many other celebrities are being caught by the fashion world wearing a Swatch. Recently Pope Francis gave up his Swatch to be sold at auction for a charity. It sold for $56,250. It is literally a model you can buy right now for $55.

Swatch is also a company that has principals. Their customer service is top notch, all of their workers in Switzerland make a livable wage, and ally-ship with the LGBTQIA+ community is not just about marketing and selling rainbow Swatches every June.

In May of 2023 the Malaysian government violently stormed 17 Swatch stores in their country and confiscated all of their rainbow themed Pride Swatches.

Swatch remembered their history. The history of misguided and oppressive religious forces working with governments to pass unjust laws that affect lives. By July Swatch filed a lawsuit against the government of Malaysia. A government that has arrested and caned many LGBTQIA+ people just for existing.

In an interview with Reuters, Hayek, who is still at the helm of Swatch and Swatch Group, said, “We strongly contest that our collection of watches using rainbow colours and having a message of peace and love could be harmful for whomever.”

In a world where social stances take a backseat to the bottom line, Swatch is willing to stand for something and put their money where their mouths are. They are spending far more money than the cost of the lost inventory and damaged displays in this lawsuit.

I will put my money and my wrist in a company that has strength of conviction, quality, never gets a virus, needs a firmware update, or violates my privacy. Also, they are fun and look cool!

As a watch enthusiast, I own ten. The Swatches designs I own are from 1983, ’84, ’86, ’90, ’91 and today. They can go with any outfit or mood.

My first Swatch bought at Sears for less than $20 is iconic to this day and a collectors item. It was their first irreverent design and some believe it has a deeper meaning.

It was released shortly after the initial 12 designs swept the world. The design came into existence when Swatch knew they had a real chance at saving heritage, an industry, jobs, and national pride.

Don’t be too late. They were too late to save many Swiss watch companies lost to footnotes in history. But they were not too late to save 17 other companies. They were not too late for ETA movements to be in watches all over the world. Swatch was not too late to inspire other Swiss watchmakers to hang in there, innovate, survive, and thrive.

I still have my gold Seiko, but my second watch is not something I have anymore. I do not know what happened to it and I would love to have it back. When I wore my Swatch I looked at the dial constantly and the simple message spoke to me. Don’t be too late.

I was late freeing myself from my toxic religion. But I was not too late to be the father my child and their friends needed when they came out of the closet. I was late recovering from addiction, but I was not too late to rebuild my life. I was late to realize I had worth and in my time of lacking self worth I hurt some people I loved, but I was not too late to survive my suicide attempt and be kinder and honest to myself and others.

What about you? It’s not too late. Time is not a renewable resource in this life. Time is not only relative, but it is what you make of it.

Don’t be too late!

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