1983 - 2020

Discover our History of Innovations

1983

A year for the history; the year Swatch was born! Ever since, ‘time’ gained a new meaning. And, for us, that new meaning is what (still) keeps us ticking. Speaking of ticking, do you have a minute? Oh, you’re gonna like this.

March 1st, 1983, we launched 12 watches with 51 pieces only, all Swiss Made, water and shock resistant, with a quartz movement and funky colors. Sounds easy?

Well, it completely reshaped the industry and threw us into the top of the market of affordable fashionable timepieces. Hum hum. The world was a white canvas, and our imagination never knew any limits.

1991

In 1991 we thought “Batteries? We can also do without. So we launched the Swatch Automatic, the first watch that just needed one to move for the mechanism to groove.

1995

Then in 1995, advanced technologies turned everyone’s favorite watch into a ski pass, freezing this moment forever in time. The Swatch Solar, created the same year, gave Mother Nature the power to power time itself. Sunny side up. Like with the eggs

1997

Hitting like a meteor, dropping the jaws of the industry , SKIN was created. The thinnest watch line in the world was born, and 1997 was forever changed.

2004

In 2004 we launched the first Connected watch, the Swatch “Paparazzi”, connecting people with wireless internet connection wherever they were, and offering instant messaging, news, and weather.

2013

In 2013 we took innovation to a new level with SISTEM51. Kicking a revolution in the way of thinking, with a brand new fully automatic factory, new technologies, and materials. The automatic watch with only 51 pieces – not like the usual hundreds painfully put together by hand - and united by 1 (you heard it well) unique central screw. Bing, bang, boom.

2015

Paying for your groceries in 2015 became as easy as telling time when we integrated a payment function in our watches with the Swatch Bellamy models.

2020

In September 2020, Swatch will add a further highlight to its colorful brand history, replacing all conventional by bio-sourced materials and premiering in a collection that brings the iconic design of the first Swatch models to the present day. Off to the next chapter : BIORELOADED !