Swatch History until 1984
This is a detailed presentation by Swatch of the history of the early years (1979-1984).
It was shown during the Swatch 30th anniversary celebrations in 2013 during the Swatch Club Gold & Pioneer Event Strasbourg / Basel. The presentation was held by Swatch COO and head of Swatch The Club, Reto Stöckli. Back then, a wonderful Swatch exhibition was presented during Baselworld 2013.
So this is the "official" version of the Swatch history according to Swatch. We can see that the "birthday of Swatch" has been set to 01-MAR-1983. A few other dates in 1983 could have been chosen.
In the presentation, quite a few notable names of engineers, designers, marketing people are missing in this presentation (in addition to Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller).
Marlyse Schmid and Bernard Müller for the design of the early Swatch watches (dial, shape of the case, early Swatch logo, …)
Ernst Thomke (project lead at ETA)
Be sure to check out the following 'independent' books / interviews presenting a few additional details / another side of the story. These are a "must have" in every Swatch collection:
- 1981 La Route De La Swatch et après... by Marlyse Schmid, Bernard Müller and Philippe J. Silaci (website; ISBN 9782940239245, 2021). The book is in French.
- Swatchissimo (ISBN 9782940019007, 1991)
- Ernst Thomke (a 1988
report/interview), in German, online only
Further recommended reading with more vintage photos: A first look at the Swatch watch in 1982/83
It all began in 1978/79 with the ESA/ETA Delirium
Tremens:
Photo: @omegaprototypes
The full and fascinating story of the Delirium Tremens (back then, the thinnest watch in the world at 1.98 mm) can be found on omegaprototypes.com. It is also explained how the Delirium Tremens initiated the idea of a mass procuced and cheap plastic watch...
