Chronosect

The Swatch group is the largest watch manufacturer in the world. With brands such as Omega, Breguet, Blancpain, Tissot and many others, it is able to offer proposals in every segment of the watch market, from the most accessible to luxury. Also very important is its subsidiary ETA, producer of very successful movements, in addition of course to the Swatch brand, which gives its name to the group and which has allowed Switzerland to return to compete with Japan in the economic market segment after the quartz crisis .

Let's find out more about this very important Swiss watchmaking reality.

The origins of the Swatch group

The merger of several production companies to cope with a market crisis is by no means a new choice in the Swiss watch industry. SSIH and ASUAG are two groups created respectively in 1930 and 1931, when the Great Depression threatened the survival of illustrious Swiss watchmaking houses. The Swiss Society for the Watch Industry, SSIH in the acronym in French, groups together companies such as Omega, Tissot and Lemania. The General Society for the Swiss Watch Industry, ASUAG in the acronym in German, owns Longines, Rado and, above all, what in the future will be called ETA: this makes ASUAG the largest Swiss manufacturer of watch movements.

The quartz crisis in the 1983s was as devastating to the watchmaking industry as, if not more, than that of the XNUMXs. Both SSIH and ASUAG are in serious financial difficulty. The Swiss government and the creditor banks are forcing a merger, as happened forty years earlier, with the aim of joining forces to overcome the crisis. A figure infamous in Italy for the Eternit case, Stephan Schmidheiny, lends financial support to this operation. Thus was born, in XNUMX, the Swatch Group.

However, the merger operation alone is not sufficient to counter the nascent Japanese watchmaking supremacy. The products of the Rising Sun, battery-powered and regulated by quartz, are precise, reliable, robust, economical as a mechanical watch can never be. We need to respond on the same ground in order to remain relevant internationally.

Digital watches like this Seiko were at the center of the so-called quartz crisis in the 70s

Swatch Group: success

The decisive move for the relaunch of an important part of Swiss watchmaking was made in the same year that the Swatch Group was founded: in 1983 the Swatch brand of affordable watches was launched.

The idea is to create an object that, in addition to competing in cost-effectiveness, ease of use and robustness with oriental quartz timepieces, can also bring the analogue watch back into the public's taste. In those years, in fact, digital watches depopulated: making the hands attractive again, think the leaders of the Swatch group, could also be a way of reviving mechanical watchmaking in the future.

The key to the success of the small, light, inexpensive Swatch watches is certainly their being informal and trendy. Countless versions of these timepieces are placed on the market: ranging from the simplest models to those designed by famous artists, from those in traditional colors to transparent ones, there is a Swatch for all tastes. The successful promotional campaigns show the Swatch as suitable for all occasions, from formal ones to adventures in the mountains or by the sea.

The ease of use of the Swatches is maximum: the strap and the case, both in plastic, are thin and can be worn easily in combination with any clothing, resisting shocks, water, heat and cold without any problems whatsoever.

The Swatch group today

After the quartz crisis, the return of the passion for mechanical watchmaking to the international public found the Swatch group well positioned. The presence within the group of the movement manufacturer ETA was useful not only to Swatch, but to all Swiss watchmaking: these movements, in fact, until a few years ago, were supplied by ETA to many manufacturers. they are used to create watches with which to satisfy the requests of an audience that has returned to look with passion to mechanical watchmaking.

Currently, ETA has decided to cease collaborations with companies outside the group and to focus on internal synergies: it still remains a supplier of numerous watch companies, given the vastness of the brands owned by the Swatch group. But what are the brands that the Swatch Group controls?

Let's see it together:

• Omega
• Breguet
• Blancpain
• Hamilton
• Tissot
• Longines
• Rado

And several others, including, of course, Swatch stands out.

And why is it called Swatch?

By the way, do you know what the word "Swatch" means? It is the contraction of "Second Watch", or "Second Watch". The idea, at the time of launch, is in fact that these light and colorful timepieces make a great timepiece for those occasions when you don't want to wear a more luxurious timepiece. Perhaps they do not imagine, the creators of the name, that over time Swatch would become such a popular watch that it was also purchased as the only timepiece for all occasions ...