This page does not contain any fancy
pictures but I hope
to provide some substantial information for collectors. If you want to
see some pictures of interesting swatches then go to my virtual
swatch museum. Although I am probably a bit biased, it is
highly
recommended,
especially
the section about special packagings which contains many pictures not
in
the Swatch-Clopedia guide!
Recent Swatch info (Last updated:
09-MAR-2010)
WANTED! Perfect Timing Swatch (#332/700). I am asking
for
your help.
The following bad incident has happened to a friend of mine without
internet
access: The Perfect Timing Swatch (#332/700) has been stolen on its way
from the USA to Germany. Apparently, the package was opened during
transport
and the watch (including the plexi glass tube) was taken out of the
parcel.
The outer white cardboard tube was still in the parcel and can be seen here.
If this watch shows up somewhere or is being offered for sale (remember
that it will come without the white paper tube), I would be VERY happy
if you could inform me
about
the seller. This watch has been STOLEN! Back to the regular news
service:
I am looking for 1983 and other swatches. I need
the following
1983 and other swatches. If you can help, please email.
I have lots of swatches for trade.
Istanbul Swatch. Istanbul
is an European Capital of
Culture for 2010. A special Istanbul Swatch called Istanbul34
will be released
in march. Istanbul is the only city in the world that
connects two continents. Therefore the left strap of the watch displays
the European continent whereas the right one depicts Asia. The
Bosphorus Bridge that connects two continents appears on the
dial. Thanks
to Squiggly for the
information.
Vancouver 2010 Paralympics
special. TheVancouver 2010 Winter Paralympics
will take place from 12 to 21-MAR. Here is a
picture of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics volunteer special
(SUDK103F). The watch is an X-Large Ocean Ripple (SUDK103) from
2002 with a special strap.
Vancouver 2010 Olympics
IOC special. Here is a
picture of a Vancouver 2010 Olympics
IOC(?) special that recently surfaced. It is the Skin Evensun (SFB136) from 2008 with
additional olympic rings on the dial. I assume that the watch is
quite rare!
Vancouver 2010 Olympics
volunteer special. Here
is a picture of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics volunteer special
(SUDK103E) and here is a
closeup of the face. The watch is an X-Large Ocean Ripple (SUDK103) from
2002 with a special strap. Don't pay too much for this, all the
recent olympic volunteer specials are/were easy to find on ebay after a
few weeks...
Roland Garros 2010
specials. Two
special Swatch watches will be released in France (only, probably) for
the Roland Garros French Open
Tennis tournament (Paris, 23-MAY to 6-JUN): A gent and a chrono. The chrono
carries the inscription "Roland Garros" at the 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock
position. No further information about name, ref.no., or
packaging so far. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the
information and pictures.
Cory Aquino special. A
limited Cory Aquino (former president
of the Philippines) Swatch special will be released on 24-JAN at the Ayala Museum in Manila.
Cory Aquino ("People Power President") would have celebrated her 77th
birthday on 25-JAN but she died in 2009. The Cory Aquino Swatch
Limited Edition has been designed
by Jaime Zobel comes in a unique package limited to 801 pcs:
A book
on Aquino titled “A Woman Dressed in Sunshine”
containing a touching
introduction by Teddyboy Locsin and photos of Aquino through historic
and personal moments and two Swatch
watches (some preview
pictures are here
on the swatch-clopedia forum). Jaime Zobel is also the designer
of the Philippines Centennial Swatch
(GK268) from 1998, also available in a nice bamboo
packaging. In fact, one of the two Swatch watches in the
packaging is the Philippines
Centennial Swatch with a new strap (ref.no. GK268C), the
other one is an
X-Large Citrus Spritz (SUDK101 from
2002) with a new strap (ref.no.
SUDK101F). The special is
numbered xxx/801 on a golden sticker
on one of the plastic cases inside of the book. Update: Meanwhile, the
watches have
been launched officially. It seems that the limited
edition is already sold out. A giant
Cory Aquino Swatch that stands 24 feet high against a large metal
casing is on display at the museum. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the
information.
Colour Code Swatch watches /
Swatch Guards are back! In
the spring, Swatch will
release 20 different Colour Code
Swatch
watches (pink, blue, light blue, green, ...). Arlette-Elsa Emch
(head of Swatch) was wearing three
Colour Code Swatches at the recent
Swatch The Club Xmas event in NYC. Two different special
packagings for these watches will be available as well, one of them
features seven(!) different Swatch Guards! The Swatch
Guards were extremely popular in the 80s, so it is great to see
these again. If you buy two different Color Code Swatches, you
will receive the special packaging with
seven different Swatch Guards. If you want to buy the special
packaging with the seven Swatch Guards but without the watches, it
costs $40 US. The second packaging
was especially designed for the combination of one Colour Code Swatch
with one Love Explosion Bijoux. If
you buy these two together, you can get the second packaging. So
far only one picture on a taiwanese
website. Update: Amazon.de
has all the pictures. There are 20(!) Colour Code Swatches in
total: 10 with a solid dial / shiny, 10 with a white dial /
matt. The
watches are (very 80s inspired as the artist swatches!):
Portuguese Charity
special. Similar to last years, a special gent Swatch
called Caçula
(GZ213) was released in NOV-2009 in Portugal. The watch comes in
a
very nice colorful
box. It is only available in Portugal and parts of the
profits are given to
charity (contribution to the construction of the first Home Center
for refugee children of the Portuguese Council for Refugees). Update: Now, the watch is
available with an additional sleeve
around the packaging, just in time for Valentines Day. On the red
sleeve, you can read “Amor Sem Fronteiras” (“Love Without Frontiers”).
Thanks
to Marco Soares for the information and pictures and to Pedro Mota for
the information.
Glinaart. Small ad
for a G&P friend :-) If you know G&P member Esther from
the US, check out her art website Glinaart, it is
wonderful! And if you want to meet her on Facebook, search for
"Glinaart" as well....
Artist Specials 2010. A
new Swatch artist collection consisting of five watches will be
released later this year. Four watches are designed by UK Set
Designer / Illustrator Gary Card: Straight Drops (GB242), Set Square (GB243), Multi-Bi(GR151), Radio
Button(GR153).
The
fifth watch is a 24 hour Swatch called Fluo(GZ216), designed by UK
fashion designer Carri Munden. So far only
one picture on a taiwanese
website. Update: Amazon.de
has all the pictures. I think that the collection is superb,
inspired by the 80s swatches! Thanks
to Jörg van Dyk for
the information.
Valentine Special 2010. The
Valentine special 2010 is a gent called Love Seconds (GB246). It
comes packaged in a nice
box. Update: It
has been designed by Matthew Langille, his fourth
Swatch design so far (after the CreArt artist Swatches Snuggle Bunch (GS136); Floating Away (GS137); Germaholic(GW149)).
Thanks
to Marco Soares for the information and
pictures.
Berlin special. A
special Time
In Berlin swatch is now available at Swatch stores in
Berlin. The watch is limited to 1000 pcs, it is a Jelly In Jelly Living Swiss (SUJM704) from
2008 with a new strap. Here
is a flyer for the Berlin special and here
is information on the official Swatch webpage. It is rumoured
that a special
packaging of this watch (less than 75 pcs) may be available later but
no details are known so far.
Swatch TTR 2010 special. As
in the last years, Swatch is sponsoring the TTR
World Snowboard Tour. A
special Swatch Chrono Plastic TTR World Snowboard Tour 2010(SUKB400D;
Chrono Plastic Mister Twin with a special
strap) is
available, it comes in a nice paper sleeve.
Limitation is unknown. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the pictures.
Swatch The Club Snow Mobile 2009
special. The Swatch Snow Mobile 2009 event
did NOT take place from 4 to 6-DEC in Saalbach-Hinterglemm,
Austria as in the last years. It was cancelled a few days before
the event due to missing snow. A Swatch The Club
event was also cancelled,
you can find all the
details here.
Update: Of course,
a special Swatch Snow Mobile 2009 (SUKB400C;
Chrono Plastic Mister Twin with a special
strap)
was prepared (but released only in very limited numbers at some swatch
stores in Austria). It comes in a special paper sleeve.
Limitation is unknown. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the
pictures.
2nd Club'Art collection. The
second Club'Art Swatch
collection will be launched soon. Again, it consists
of three watches, numbered and limited
to 1111 pcs each. Swatch USA has sent out an email to its VIP
customers with a picture of the watches.
The watches are: Bold
Cat(GZ207S) by Christian Montenegro
from Argentinia (last years Illustrative
competition winner), 60 + 1(GZ208S)
by David Benedek from Germany, and
Soundless
Dance (GZ210S) by Tanja
Székessy from Germany. Again, the watches come
packaged in a nice box as you can see in this example here.
Update: The rumours
are true: After being sold out for a while, two of the
three watches have now been reissued as part of the
regular Swatch Spring / Summer 2010 collection, ie. no special
packaging and not
numbered: Bold
Cat 2 (GE231), Soundless Dance 2
(GW156). A new version of 60 +
1 ("60 + 1_2" [funny name!], GW155) will be released later in
the
spring. To be honest,
I don't think that this is a great idea and some collectors might be a
little unhappy about it... Thanks
to Jörg van Dyk for
the information.
Chrono Automatic / Berlin launch special. The long
awaited Chrono Automatic product line was launched on 24-SEP in Geneva,
Switzerland. Price was originally 295 UKP / 380 EUR
according to this interview
with Arlette-Elsa Emch, head of Swatch,
but at the last
minute, Swatch decided to reduce the price by almost 100 EUR. It
is 385/400 Swiss Francs or approx. 295 EUR now! This
dutch website has all the details about the Chrono Automatic.
Five watches have been released: Right Track (SVGB400), Blunge (SVGK400G),Silver Class (SVGK401G),Simply Pure (SVGK402), Sign in the
Sky (SVGK403). A great collection!
The watches come packaged in a nice plastic
box, here is a picture of
the watch in the opened box. The launch took
place during a reception in the
Senso Bar. Arlette-Elsa Emch
was accompanied by five nice men
wearing the watches. Until 15-OCT, the watches are exclusively
sold in Geneva. Update: To
commemorate the freestyle.berlin,
sponsored by Swatch and taking place from 9 to 11-OCT in Berlin, a very
limited launch special (SVGB400D) has been released
in a numbered limited edition of 77 pcs. The watch comes packaged
in a special paper box with the number
"xx - 77" and more interesting: The watch itself is different
from the regular watch Right Track (SVGB400): On the back of the watch,
the event logo and the number of the watch is printed
inside of the glass! More pictures of this
great and unique special can be found here.
Update2: Right in
time for xmas, the new Chrono Automatic is featured on one and a half
page in the Zeit magazine, part of the
biggest weekly newspaper in Germany: DIE ZEIT.
Update3: Another
(different) freestyle.Berlin special with the ref.code SVGB400C also
exists, no further info available. Thanks
to ORB for the information, to Christine Tanner
for the information and pictures and to Alain Choisy for the
update. Other pictures by Swatch.
Older "Natuzzi" special. In
1996, a special gent Swatch Natuzzi (GN155C, a gent Dark Blue (GN155) with a
special strap) has been released. Pasquale Natuzzi is a furniture designer
from Italy. Some of the watches are delivered in an envelope signed by Pasquale Natuzzi. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the information and
pictures.
Bernie Madoff's Swatch watches
auctioned. A Swatch watch (a Jelly In Jelly Icy Area (SUJK106)), previously
owned by the former Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange and fraudster
Bernie Madoff, has been auctioned
for $250 US in Santa Ana, US on 29-DEC in order to raise money for
the victims of Bernie. More
Swatch watches were available at the auction.
Chinese New Year special. The
Chinese New Year special is called The Blessing Sign (GR152) and
it comes packaged with a nice little
tiger (2010 is the year of the tiger). Thanks
to Marco Soares for the information and pictures.
Portuguese Maxi specials. The
production of Maxi swatches has been stopped in general by
Swatch. However, two recent Portuguese specials are officially
available as Maxi Swatches in a very limited edition, in Portugal
only: Caçula
(MGZ213), 120 pcs from 2009 (closeup of
face) and Amiguinho (MGZ193), 150 pcs
from 2008 (closeup of face).
Thanks
to www.watch-boavista.com
for the information and pictures.
Swatch The Club New York Xmas
event / special. From 18 to 21-DEC, the traditional
Swatch The Club Xmas event took place in New York City. About 120
collectors from all over the world participated at the event. To
commemorate the event, a unique (unavailable elsewhere!) Chrono Plastic
Swatch called Jingle Shine (SUIZ402S) was released in a numbered
limited edition of 170 pcs. The watch comes packaged in a nice golden bowl inside a black paper box with imprint "Swatch '09 Xmas Special Limited Edition".
The bezel has the letters "Swatch Xmas 09". The watch (with a
plastic fliplock strap) is numbered on the back
of the watch, on the sticker, and
on the golden bowl. Here
is a detailed report
about the
event with many pictures!
Remembering Tom Rolnicki. The
Swatch community lost an avid collector on 20-DEC when Tom Rolnicki
lost his battle with cancer. Tom was one of the most enthusiastic and
early collectors of Swatch in the USA. Tom started a collectors club in
Minneapolis, Minnesota that was arguably the largest collectors club in
the USA. Tom lectured on Swatch topics in the USA and Europe at various
events. He was an original Gold member of the official Swatch club and
remained a Pioneer member. Along with James Cordaro, Tom authored Swatch Watch Europe, a 100 page
collector’s guide to 18 “Swatch filled” cities in Europe. In November
2005, Tom cut the ribbon at the
opening of the Swatch store at the Mall of America near
Minneapolis. Tom’s Swatch friends remember his vast knowledge of
Swatch history, his sense of humor, and his generosity. When Tom
learned of new collectors in the USA, he sometimes sent large boxes of
Swatch items he had collected over the years as a welcome gift.
Tom will also be remembered for his need to touch a nun’s habit for
luck whenever and wherever he saw a nun (often in train stations in
Europe). Tom was a good friend of Swatch and he will be missed. Thanks
to Brian Pier for the (sad) information.
Fourth Hawaii
special / US destination specials. A fourth Hawaii
special Swatch called Ke Kai (GN911C,
Hawaiian
for The Ocean) will be
released at the end of october. The name of watch "Ke Kai" will be printed on the
loop, so it will be slightly different from the original first picture. The first
Hawaii special is Tropical
Delight(GN188)
from 2000. The second one
was released later after Tropical
Delight sold out. Ref. no is GK383C, so it is the gent My Next Holidays (GK383) with
the strap of Tropical Delight and
a special loop with the imprint "Hawaii" (Tropical Delight has a loop with
the imprint "aloha"). And if you count the Hawaii
Destination special (GK209HI, 1998) also as Hawaii special,
the upcoming special will be the fourth Hawaii special. More regional
watches (old watches with new city specific straps) are planned: Miami
(GK388D), Los Angeles (GK388E), Las
Vegas (GK203F, we've seen that strap before!), Chicago
(GF112C), New
York (special imprint on the face?). The New York
watch is called Lines In The Sky
(GZ209).
Update: Meanwhile,
the six US destination watches are
available in the USA. A special
packaging containing the six watches has been released as well
shortly before Xmas. The box is limited to 200 pcs, not
numbered. The embossed imprint on the box reads: "DECEMBER 2009 /
LIMITED RELEASE". Thanks
to always-surprising.com for the information and
picture and to Alain Choisy for the additional information.
Swiss Tourism Access
special. A special Jelly In Jelly Access called Schweiz Tourismus
(SUMK104C) has been distributed to Swiss Tourism employees. The
watch is a Jelly In Jelly Schneespur (SUMK104) with a
special strap. The loop reads "Schweiz - Ganz Natürlich"
(Switzerland - Totally Natural). It is rumoured that the
limitation is 700 pcs. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the information and picture.
Spiga / Vendôme Xmas
special. A Spiga / Vendôme Xmas special called Season
Of Wonders (YSS245GPU, Irony Lady Lady) is now
available. It comes packaged in a beautiful special packaging, a cube made out of shiny transparent
synthetic resin with engravings, printing and crystals. The
special is not numbered but it is rumoured that it is limited to only
200 pcs. Here is a
picture of the actual watch in the opened cube. The special costs
175 EURO / 280 CHF. Thanks
to Jörg van Dyk and to Rodolphe Foucart for the information and
pictures.
UK Xmas event. On
5-DEC, the traditional Swatch The Club UK Xmas event took place at the All Stars Bowlingcenter in
London. No special watch was released but you can read a report
about the event on www.always-surprising.com.
Geneva special. A
new special gent swatch called Le Jet d'Eau
(GZ219) has been released in Switzerland. The watch comes with a special sleeve and it shows the symbols
and the colours of the city of
Geneva. Thanks
to Jacky Beauverd for the information and to Alain Choisy for the picture.
Australian Football League
specials. In 2008, Swatch has produced a huge series of
special Swatches for the Australian Football League
(AFL). For each of the sixteen teams, two special Swatches were
released (as usual, older watches with new special straps): A
gent Genetic Code (GZ164) and an
Irony Big Rosso Tenebra (YGS440).
Each watch comes packaged in a nice special paper sleeve.
Limitation is unknown. Information about these watches can be
found in this catalogue
("NEW!! Kids Swatch Watches $49.99 Also available in adult
styles") and here is an ad in an online AFL
magazine (page 17). Besides the 32 Swatch watches, 16
additional Flik Flak
specials were produced as well. The 32 Swatch specials are as
follows: Western Bulldogs (GZ164I,
YGS440I), West Coast Eagles (GZ164J,
YGS440J), Sydney
Swans (GZ164K, YCS164K), St Kilda Saints (GZ164N,
YGS440N), Richmond Tigers (GZ164O,
YGS440O), Port
Adelaide (GZ164Q, YGS440Q), Melbourne Demons (GZ164R,
YGS440R), Hawtorn Hawks (GZ164T,
YGS440T), Geelong
Cats (GZ164V, YGS440V), Fremantle (GZ164W, YGS440W), Essendon
Bombers (GZ164X, YGS440X), Collingwood Magpies (GZ164Y,
YGS440Y), Carlton
Blues (GZ164Z, YGS440Z), Brisbane Lions (GZ164CC,
YGS440CC), Adelaide Crows (GZ164CD,
YGS440CD), North
Melbourne (GZ164CE, YGS440CE). Update: You can currently
buy the watches online at ebay
or at Goodscore. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the information and pictures.
Unknown specials. There
are at least five "strap variant" specials of the Jelly In Jelly Fluid Word (SUJK104K)
in existance. One of them is the Frankfurt Skylinespecial (SUJK104K). The
other four have not surfaced so far: Volks Bank (SUJK104E, Austria); Almaderos (SUJK104F, Spain); L'Oreal (SUJK104J, Czechoslovakia);
KLM Airlines (SUJK104V,
The Netherlands). Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the information.
Adecco special. The
temporary employment agency Adecco has issued a special
Jelly In Jelly Swatch Adecco
(SUJK121I). The watch is the Feel My Love Jelly In Jelly
(SUJK121) from 2007, fitted
with a new strap. Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the picture.
Ice Hockey World Championship
2009 special. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)
World Championship 2009 took place from 24-APR to
10-MAY-2009 in Switzerland. Recently a special Chrono Swatch has
surfaced. It is the Irony Chrono Nowadays Three (YCB4002AG) with
a special strap. The watch comes packaged in a special paper
sleeve. Limitation and distribution is unknown. Update: Actually, there are
three different Ice Hockey Swatch specials with the ref.codes:
YCB4002AGC, YCB4002AGD, YCB4002AGE. The special Chrono Swatch is one of there
but more details are not known yet... Thanks
to Alain Choisy for the update and for the
picture.
Re-launch Swatch flagship store
New York. On 12-NOV, the Swatch flagship store in Times
Square, New York City, reopened its doors. Kelly Osborne was present to celebrate
the reopening. Here is a nice
video report from the party at the store.
New Vendôme/Spiga
watches. Two
new watches will be (are?) available soon at the Via Della Spiga Store
in Milano and the Place Vendôme Store in Paris: 1. Plume de Mer
(SFK338PU, Skin) and 2. Spirit of Deepness (YOB400PU,
Irony THE Chrono). Thanks
to Henk Seligmann for the information and
pictures.
Early Swatch leaflets and
blister packagings. I have added pictures of two
interesting early Swatch leaflets (Belgium and UK) and two early
blister packagings to my page of old Swatch ads.
Check out this interesting pieces of Swatch history!
Portuguese Charity
special. Similar to last years, a special gent Swatch
called Caçula
(GZ213) will soon be released in Portugal. The watch comes in a
very nice colorful
box. It will only be
available in Portugal and parts of the profits will be given to
charity (contribution to the construction of the first Home Center
for refugee children of the Portuguese Council for Refugees). Thanks
to Marco Soares for the information and picture and to Pedro Mota for
the information.
Austria "Come Together 2009"
event /
special. Each year, Swatch The Club Austria hosts a Come Together event in Vienna for
its club
members. This year, the Come
Together event took place on 16-SEP. As in the last
years, a special Swatch Come 2gether Vienna 09 (SAZ106C) was released, it is
an automatic Edwin Moses (SAZ106) with a
special strap. Limitation is unknown. The ref.no SAZ106C
for the Come 2gether Vienna 09 must be a mistake as this ref.no was
previously used for the FIVB
staff 2007 special! Is this the first time that such
an error has occurred? Uh, oh.....
Frankfurt Store Opening
special. A new
Swatch Store has opened
its doors in Frankfurt, Germany, in the heart of the city:
Neue Kräme 25-27. It is the first Swatch store in Germany
featuring the new Ice Dunes concept. To
commemorate the opening, a special version of the Jelly In Jelly Fluid Word (SUJK104K)
featuring the Frankfurt
skyline on the strap has been released in a limited edition of 300
pcs, packaged in a special sleeve. On
30-OCT at 6pm, a party
organized by Swatch The Club Germany took place at the
store. During the party, a very very nice special packaging of
the Frankfurt watch was sold in a limited edition of only 54 pcs
(taken from the 300 Frankfurt watches). The packaging looks like
an ice cube, it is made of relatively heavy plastic. Here
is a little report
about the
opening party with a few pictures!
Xmas special 2009. The
Xmas special 2009 is a gent Swatch called Star Edition (GZ199S). It comes
packaged in a nice big special
packaging (note the size of the packaging in the lower right by
comparing to the actual gent swatch on the picture!) and it is limited
to 10000 pcs, numbered. You can see the rest of the Xmas
collection 2009 here.
Berlin Club'Art special. On
17-OCT, the second Club'Art
Swatch The Club event took place in Berlin. About 30 club members
from Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Portugal, ...)
participated at the event. The programme of the event included a
visit to the highly successful Illustrative 2009, a meet &
greet with the three Club'Art swatch designers, and more. The
event participants received a special
box (limited to 111 pcs)
containing the three Club'Art specials. The watches in the box
have an extra loop with the
Illustrative event logo around the strap. Here
is a detailed report
about the
event with many pictures!
Usually, the number of visitors to this page
is between 200 and
300 per day (a little less on weekends :-) But sometimes, there
are peaks in the traffic! My
page is also visited by Swatch employees.
Disclaimer: I am
not a member of SMH, nor am I related to them in anyway, nor am I an
official
Swatch Dealer! I'm just a happy pioneer member of SWATCH THE CLUB.
Swatch
and Swatch The Club are registered Trademarks of SWATCH AG SWITZERLAND.This
site is in no way, shape or form affiliated with, related to or in
association
with the Swatchgroup.
It is a collector site for collectors run by a collector.
Independent music that deserves to be heard:
The Amber Light, Alias Eye,
Arilyn, Poor Genetic Material,
Cinnamonia, Tea For Two, Lou
Maxwell Taylor, ...
