On the weekend of March, 12, 2000, a great event organized by the International Swatch Club took place in Grenchen, Switzerland.

About 500 club members from all around the world came to celebrate the launch of the new club watch 2000 Genetic Code.  Each club member received a special numbered packaging of the watch.  But before the packaging was distributed, all club members had the chance to visit the swatch factory in Grenchen.  For those of you who did not have the chance to go to the event, here are some pictures:

For the swatches, Swatch also manufactures most of the mechanical parts (eg. metal gears).  Each one of these machines manufactures a different part of the watch:

    


A picture on the wall illustrates the steps to manufacture a swatch:

    


As you can see, the swatch is manufactured on a very long production line where part after part is added to each watch.  The production line did not run as quickly as I always thought.  Here are two stations at the production line:

     


After the visit of the factory, the launch of the club watch took place in the Parktheater in Grenchen.  My pictures of the futuristic show did not turn out well but I think that you did not miss so much because the show was a bit strange.  After the show, the club members received their club special by a "crazy professor":

    
    I really think that I have almost the same hair style as the "crazy professor" :-)  I am working on it.

Some very collectible swatches were also on display.  Here is a picture of the Puff swatches (I still don't have these in my collection :-)

    


In the afternoon, we had a nice day in the garden of the Parktheater.  It was soo warm and sunny.  It was also nice to meet collectors from all over Europe.  Later, Mr.Hayek sr. turned up to sign autographs for everyone.  He stayed more than two hours until everyone had his autograph.  Really nice.   But I think that you have seen pics of Mr. Hayek sr. before :-)

Overall, it was a nice day.  The organization was slightly chaotic but it is difficult to do better when 500 crazy swatch collectors are in town.  See you all next time.

Andreas Wiethoff
April, 5th, 2000.

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