Watch Collecting

Swatch

Watch Collecting

Swatch wasn't the first timepiece to use modern technology to eliminate the complex series of operations required by the traditional watch and thus dramatically reduce the cost of construction. Digital watches - which replaced the conventional dial with a blank 'mini Screen' on which illuminated figures gave the time at the press of a button - first appeared in Britain during the early 1970s. Initially, they were comparatively expensive novelties priced at between $100 and $150 However, like most electronic gadgets, once there was sufficient demand, manufacturers - based mainly in the Far East - were able to mass produce and cut prices to unprecedented levels.

Watch Collecting

Indeed, it was the early digital models that broke the monopoly of the jeweller as the source of virtually all watches. From being a luxury item, it became a commodity which could be picked up for a fiver or less on the garage forecourt. But although digital watches were reliable to a degree, they were essentially purely functional. The marketing genius of the Swatch creators introduced an element of fun and fashion which even the best designed digitals had always lacked.

Watch Collecting

 The move to plastic for both case and strap - now conceived as a single integrated unit created a generation of watches in which first colour and then pattern played a primary role in the appeal of the product. Even today, it is necessary for novice collectors to remind themselves that not all plastic watches are Swatches.



Within nine months of their launch in March 1983, more than a million Swatches had been sold in Switzerland, Germany and the UK and the success of the brand quickly spawned a host of imitations. Swatch, however, enjoyed the kudos of being made in Switzerland, regarded as home to the world's finest craftsmen.

Watch Collecting

The first Swatch metal- cased range - Irony appeared in 1994, by which time there had already been a platinum-cased Swatch (though its price limited distribution) and subsequent Swatch models came in gold-plated and aluminium metal cases.



Almost as important to its success as its origins I and innovative choice of raw materials was the catchy Swatch brand name which had the added benefit of being easy to pronounce for consumers of virtually any nationality. Legend has it that the New York advertising agency which initially coined the name saw it as shorthand for the words 'second watch

Watch Collecting

 The marriage of the brand name to the novel concept of a watch that would never need winding took off as an international best seller. The original idea was that, once the projected three-year life of the Swatch battery had ended, the watch too would simply be thrown away. This idea also applied to the Swatch's design which the company felt should regularly be 'moved on'.




Despite initially being conceived as a unisex timepiece, it was not long before special Swatch ladies' versions - smaller in size but otherwise identical to the basic range - made their appearance. Their launch in the mid-1990S paved the way for the Pop Swatch introduced in late 1996. Cased in super-size plastic and mounted on a stretchy printed-fabric band, it was designed to be worn on the upper arm by beachgoers or over the sleeve of a jacket for winter wear. Hot on its heels was the Maxi Swatch, big brother to the classic plastic Swatch, but blown up to 10 times its original size to become a wall clock.

Watch Collecting

The strap alone measured 6.9ft from tip to tip!The Pop Swatch craze produced some of the most fantastic designs. Early models with dials printed to match the strap produced the illusion of the strap running right through the centre of the watch while, latterly, dials were surrounded by puffs of chiffon or even circles of red feathers.


Technical innovations dating from the 1990s include the first Swatch chronographs to join a watch family which would ultimately comprise mechanical as well as quartz movements and, more recently, alarm watches (the Musical! range) divers' watches the Scuba range) and a solar- powered model.

Watch Collecting

The first chronographs were an immediate success with the buying public. Soon after their launch, demand was outrunning supply to the point where some stockists were able to charge the equivalent of 100SF for a watch list-priced at 75SF and still sell every piece they could get their hands on. This didn't please manufacturers whose trading policy had always favoured low price, high volume turnover to the slower- paced higher unit price sales which had always been the norm.






In the heady introductory phase of the early 1980s when new models appeared almost weekly, a standard price of 39.50SF ($45 in the UK) was set for all models. It was only much later, with the introduction of variants dramatically different in both movement and case or strap design, that Swatch offered watches at varying prices.

Watch Collecting

By the mid-to late-1990S, the rate of design change settled down to the issue of two main collections issued each calendar year but regularly supplemented by special occasion models. One of the most celebrated of these is the series devised in 1994 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first modern Olympic Games. Part of the revenue from sales of these watches went to the International Olympic Committee to help further the cause of sport,




especially among the young. The six designs were offered both as single watches and a boxed set of six, a type of presentation which - even when new - was aimed more at the specialist watch collector than the general public.

Watch Collecting

Paradoxically for a product originally conceived as a disposable or - at best - short life fashion accessory, the collecting cult took hold early in the life of the brand. The first Swatch collectors' club was formed in August I990 and, 12 months later, claimed a membership of more than 20,000. Similarly, the club's own publication entitled 'Swatch World Journal', which started as a single sheet in 1991, gradually expanded at the peak of the Swatch collecting craze of the mid '90s to a 40-page glossy magazine issued twice yearly.





At this time, the coverage given to this form of collecting in the media took prices to an unprecedented high during a period when auctions of vintage watches were regularly held both in Milan and New York. Notable examples include a version of the Puff Pop Swatch with its bezel surrounded by a frou-frou of fabric which sold for $1,400 and one of the first Jellyfish watches dating from 1983 (similar to the first collectors' club exclusive, Golden Jellyfish, issued in 1990-91) that fetched $4,200. In Milan meanwhile, a prototype Picasso Pop Swatch Art Special realised a record 34 million lire and the Swatch Ferrari sold in Hong Kong for $80,000 dollars.

Watch Collecting

By early 1993, there were already an estimated 54 million pieces in circulation, with new often limited edition models continuing to be issued at regular intervals then discontinued. And, even though prices have fallen back, special events series as well as prototype and short-lived variants on popular models still command high prices on the secondary market.






Today, most of the big money trading in vintage Swatches takes place on the internet which, while a useful source, offers few true bargains.




So what does the future hold for the Swatch collector? While we are unlikely to see the return of the vastly over-inflated prices made by rare specimens during the mid-1990S, the first generation all-plastic Swatches will continue to appeal as design icons and appreciate gradually in value. Moreover, while second-hand Swatches can still regularly be picked up at car boot sales and junk shops for under $10, now is the time to begin serious collecting.

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