The Swatch Watch - the ultimate 80s fashion accessory

The humble but lovable Swatch watch (the name was taken from the marketing concept: the Second Watch, like the second car) was first introduced in Switzerland in 1983. Originally concepted as a way to produce a standard watch using plastic (and therefore driving down the cost and reclaim some market share from the Japanese) the development process was taken over by a marketing consultant named Franz Sprecher whose big idea was to create a complete brand around these plastic watches and to market them as a fun fashion accessory.

His idea was a hit. Millions and millions of Swatches were sold. Young people began wearing them two and even three at at time like bangles. Some girls wore them in their hair.

The Swatch Group (the company that makes the Swatch) could see the writing on the wall however and realized that the fad surrounding their product would fizzle out one day so right from the start they looked at ways to diversify their product line and moved into the aquistion market with a vengence.

Today The Swatch Group owns Tiffany and Co, Longines, Calvin Klein, Pierre Balmain and many other luxury brands and are themselves one of the most recongnizable brands in the world. They also continue to manufacture the product that got them off the ground: the humble Swatch watch.

Classic Swatch Watches of the 80s. Gimme two!