The Swiss watch industry experience probably its worst ever crisis in the 1970s. Their fiercest competitors were the Japanese, but they had been outclassed when the ?Delirium? was launched in 1979. ?Delirium? was the thinnest wristwatch ever made and it also came with a limited number of components.



It was the founding of the SMH, a Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watch Making that revolutionized the industry. As an answer to the mid seventies crisis, they launched Swatch in 1983. The Swatch watch marked the upturn in the producers? fortune, as its most important features were both high quality and a very affordable price. This slim watch, made of no more than fifty-one components, was just the beginning for what is now known as the world's most dynamic watch company.

In time, the Swatch watches have indeed become a collector's item, mainly due to their variety of design, but also because of their high quality standards. Since the first Swatch watch was launched in 1983, the company has sold over two hundred million watches, and has come to include other famous brands, apart from the original Swatch brand. Some of these famous brands are Longines, Omega, Mido, Rado, and Pierre Balmain.

In order to stay ahead of their competitors, the producers of the Swatch watches needed to provide their clients with high quality products. But this is not the only requirement for success. Swatch watches also had to come with highly affordable prices, which meant that the company had to come with some clever tricks in order to ensure this killer combination. Their first smart move was to use about fifty components for their Swatch watches, as opposed to their opponents whose expensive timepieces require over one hundred components. Their next inspired move was to produce Swatch watches using cheaper materials. Moreover, they started producing the watches in cheap manufacturing plants. This is how the Swatch watch managed to remain affordable and popular. It was its popularity from the eighties that led to a great number of customers and therefore the company was able to keep their prices down.

However, things changes in the nineties, and their sales fell so dramatically, that they had to revert to their old ways and bring simple designs back to life, with a touch of luxury, though. This is how today's trends for the Swatch watches were born, and we are now witnessing such an overwhelming range of designs and functions, that sometimes we actually find it hard to believe that we are dealing with a genuine Swatch watch.

In spite of the variety of Swatch watches available on the market today, their producers have kept true to their initial goal, that of providing potential clients with high quality watches. Whatever their design or functions may be, the Swatch watches are and will always be high quality products.

Swatch is a brand that has irrevocably demonstrated its outstanding technical capabilities, when the Swatch watch was chosen the Official Timekeeper in major sports events such as Olympic Games or Ski and Snowboard World Cups.