Swatch

Brand history

Swatch Group was founded in Biel/Bienne in 1983 to rescue Swiss watchmaking from the quartz crisis. The SISTEM51 automatic (2013) and MoonSwatch collaboration with Omega (2022) are the two most technically and commercially significant Swiss watch launches of the past 40 years.

The Swatch Group created the Swatch brand in 1983 as the Swiss watchmaking industry's answer to the Japanese quartz invasion. Nicolas Hayek Sr. and Ernst Thomke designed the Swatch as a radically simplified, ultrasonically-welded plastic quartz watch that could be assembled by robot at Swiss wage rates. The project saved the Swiss watch industry: the Swatch Group used the profits from Swatch quartz production to fund the survival of ETA, Longines, Omega, Blancpain, and the other brands in the group portfolio. The Sistem51 (2013) is the Swatch foray into mechanical watchmaking: a 17-jewel automatic with 51 components, assembled entirely by machine, with a certified 90-hour power reserve. The watches in this catalog are Sistem51 references and MoonSwatch (2022, a collaboration with Omega using Bioceramic cases in Speedmaster-inspired designs at the Swatch price point). The MoonSwatch is a cultural phenomenon and a serious commercial success; it is not the same object as the Speedmaster whose aesthetic it borrows.