SWATCHING BRIEF

While the Swatch is often credited with protecting Swiss watchmaking, it has also had a lasting impact. Perhaps the revolutionary brand has never been more important...

- WORDS JOSH SIMS

Carlo Giordanetti, a member of the Swatch Design Committee and CEO of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, has this to say on watch design today: "The Swatch approach has been to be pioneering, sometimes even too early. But, if you ask me, of course I'd say that this new lightness, this levity we're seeing in watch design now originated with Swatch, because the brand didn’t look at watches in the same way as the rest of the industry. It wasn’t just about crazy design. We changed the way people looked at watches, which was a pretty big thing to do.”

Some might say it is as though the revolutionary watchmaker's defining, trail-blazing, pop design characteristics are more influential and more resonant now than they have ever been (it recently marked its 40th anniversary). To condense the hows into a few words, Swatch has accomplished this by:

a. deploying unexpected materials

b. pushing collaborations with artists and designers outside of the watch industry

c. being playful with dial design

d. being bold in the use of colour and graphics

e. daring to offer its own interpretations on iconic Swiss watches

There certainly might be more to it than just the above, but we trust there can be no argument about these points. Not that Swatch is afraid of going its own way.

“There is that readiness to challenge [convention], to be bold and in your face in a way that set the tone and opened the door for others in watchmaking to be much bolder too. And I think that so many big traditional brands are ‘joining the movement’ now is a good sign, because it brings more lightness into the world,” Giordanetti says.

THE SWATCH EFFECT