Swatch Profile

Some 50 nations, around 70 languages, over 440 reporting units, nearly 20,000 collaborators and gross sales in 2003 of close to 4 billion Swiss Francs. That’s the Swatch Group today

In the mid-seventies, the Swiss watch industry was in the midst of its worst crisis ever. Technologically speaking, the Japanese competition had been outclassed in 1979 with the launch of the “Delirium,” the world’s thinnest wristwatch with a limited number of components. But the event that marked the upturn in the industry’s fortunes was the founding of SMH, the Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries. And its answer to the crisis was Swatch-a slim plastic watch with only 51 components (instead of the usual 91 parts or more) that combined top quality with a highly affordable price. It first went on sale in 1983. Since this time, it has gone on to become the most successful wristwatch of all time, and The Swatch Group, the parent company, is the largest and most dynamic watch company in the world.

For many years, new developments have been taking place alongside the standard Swatch watch in plastic-from Irony (the metal Swatch) to the Swatch SKIN Chrono (the world’s thinnest chronograph) to Swatch Snowpass (a watch with a built-in access control function which can be used as a ski pass at many ski resorts throughout the world), and Swatch Beat (featuring the revolutionary Internet Time).

 

Swatch is also the Official Timekeeper of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Outstanding technical capabilities and advances in the fields of science and technology were already proven by Swatch during its role as the Official Timekeeper in both the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Swatch will also be the Official Timekeeper for the Olympic Games of 2006 in Turin (Italy), 2008 in Beijing (China), as well as the 2010 Games

The Swatch Group Ltd. in Biel (Switzerland) is today the largest manufacturer and distributor of finished watches in the world. In terms of sales (in Swiss francs) the Swatch Group represents some 25% of global watch sales. The group produces more than 100 million watches, movements and stepping motors, with annual sales of 4 billion Swiss francs. The Swatch Group has 160 production centers situated mainly in Switzerland, but also in France, Germany, Italy, USA, Virgin Islands, Thailand, Malaysia and China - over 440 reporting units.

The Swatch Group is a synonym for emotional and luxury products of high quality. With its own worldwide network of distribution organizations, the Group is active in the manufacture of finished watches, movements and components (ETA, Nouvelle Lemania, Frederic Piguet).

It produces practically all the components necessary to its 18 watch brand companies. The Swatch Group offers watches in all price and market categories:

• Breguet, Blancpain, Jaquet-Droz, Glashutte-Original/Union, Leon Hatot, Omega, Longines and Rado in the luxury, prestige and the top range segment

• Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Hamilton and Pierre Balmain in the middle segment

• Swatch and Flik Flak in the basic segment

• and Endura produces “private label” watches whose prices vary according to the customer’s wishes

But the Swatch Group is not only a watchmaking group. Research and development of state-of-the-art products and technologies play a major role in its activities. Microelectronics (e.g. EM Microelectronic-Marin - low power, low-voltage) and micromechanics represent another important part of its operations. The Swatch Group is also active in the field of telecommunications and the automobile sector as well as in the service sector. This includes sports timing which measures the time at multiple international sports events and most of the Olympic Games.

The Swatch Group adopted its present name in 1998 (since 1986 it had been called SMH Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries Ltd). The change was made because of the difficulty in adapting the name and its abbreviation “SMH” into other languages. The group was founded in 1983 through the merging of the two Swiss watch manufacturers ASUAG and SSIH.