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.

Older Swatch info

news from 2003 are below:

• Japanese Happy Joe & Happy Jenny xmas special.  Swatch The Club Japan has released a special packaging Merry Xmas Happy Joe & Happy Jenny (limited to 400 pcs).  The packaging can contain any of the six brand new Japanese only Happy Joe & Happy Jenny Irony swatches.  The new colors are red, black, and white.  The special packaging was launched during a club event on 14-DEC held in Tokyo with 20 selected club members participating.  Earlier (in may 2002), Japanese only special colored Happy Joe & Happy Jenny Irony swatches were sold, with different colors.  Thanks to Yuji Tada for the information and pictures.
• Geneva / Chamonix Xmas event special.  On the weekend of 6-DEC, Swatch The Club held a xmas event in Switzerland:  In Chamonix and Geneva.  You can read a nice report on Nikolai Kuttler's nice webpage.  The collectors received a nice (low numbered) version of this year's xmas special Jingle Jangle:  The difference to the regular version is a white imprint on the box:  "Swatch the Club - Christmas Event 2003 - Geneva - Switzerland" and the cloth inside of the box is white instead of red.  Here is a report about the event by Tracey Waldron.  Here is a very very nice picture collection from the event by Markus Muth.
• Otazu/Swatch Auction for Warchild.  Through Squiggly's website, a very special Swatch Skin in co-operation with Swatch Group Netherlands, Otazu and Gassan Diamonds was auctioned for charity!  The watch is provided by Swatch and completely re-styled to a unique piece of jewelry/art by the world famous jewelry/designer Otazu. Otazu is really hot, he designs jewelry for Kylie Minogue and Madonna. He mostly works with Swarovski stones, but in this piece he also used a real diamond which is provided by Gassan Diamonds. The closing of the auction is on Sunday, December 14, 2003 at 7 PM.   The watch sold for 2400 Euro to Italy.  Swatch, Otazu, Gassan and Squiggly donate the proceeds to Warchild. Hereyou can find more information about the watch, and place your bid on the watch.
• Swatch USA Christmas Events.  Swatch The Club hosted five Christmas parties across the USA on Tuesday, 2 December.  Here is a report by Brian Pier about the events:  "On December 2, Swatch the Club held Christmas parties in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In addition to good food and drink, a number of collectors had the chance to visit. At each store, a grand prize was given away. Here is a picture of the green Christmas treasure chest closed. Here is a picture of the Christmas treasure chest opened along with Claudia (the winner in Chicago). Each of the chests contained Jingle Jangle plus a vintage Christmas Swatch. In Miami, the special was Xian Lax. In Chicago, Pompadour. Los Angeles had Hollywood Dreams and San Francisco had Bergstrussli. The winner of the lucky draw had the right to purchase Jingle Jangle and they received the vintage special for free. Everyone who attended received a special long sleeve tshirt listing all of the Swatch Christmas specials. A very nice evening that was extra special for the four winners."  Here is a report by Tracey Waldron about the Xmas event in San Francisco:  "The party at the SF Swatch store had less than a dozen collectors show up.  At 9pm - sharp - they had the drawing for the Jingle Jangle special package which included a Christmas swatch of old.  The old swatch SF received was Bergstrussli.  The special only cost $80 and a collector did win it.  The special came in a green woven box with a gold plaque on the outside that said something about the year and the jingle jangle special.  Inside was a Jingle Jangle watch, t-shirt & Bergstrussli.  Everyone that showed up received a special Christmas t-shirt, reindeer antlers and glasses."
• Guinness book of records event.  A Guinness book of records event took place in Portugal on 2-DEC:  The aim was to establish a world record in the largest number of interconnected Swatch watches.  The event started at 1700 and was attended by 33 Club members as well as Patrick Jaron from Club International.  Naturally, a person from Guinness Book of World Records was also present ? she counted the watches!  The world record was set, and it consisted of 1382 working plastic Swatch watches.  Each participant received a special packaging of a new Touch swatch, numbered to 33 pcs.  Thanks to Ricardo Rocha for the info and pictures.
• Dadazüri turnover special.  Swatch will release a second Dada special soon.  It is a Turnover swatch called Dadazüri (SUFZ100).  The watch is numbered and limited to 8590 pcs.  Every special contains a different piece(only very few square millimeters) of original letter writing paper of the "movement dada" (1920) or  from a dada flyer "papillion dada" (1919/1920).  The first pieces were cut on 3-APR-2003 at the watch and jewelry fair in Basel by Nicolas G. Hayek Sr., Nick Hayek Jr., and the city president of Zürich, Elmar Ledergerber.  You can find more info about the Dada swatch specials at David Rippmann's nice website.
• Two Austrian Access specials.  Two different access specials from Austria have surfaced:  The first one is called A1(a scuba access Icicle, SHK101D) and it has been distributed by the biggest mobile phone company in Austria: A1.  Limitation is unknown.  The second access special is quite interesting:  The security company EVVA is using an access swatch EVVA Door Access (a Clearance access, SKK103, with a special strap; no special ref.no.) as part of a security system.  Limitation is also unknown.  Thanks to Roberto Tintori for the pictures and information.
• Frankfurt Store Anniversary special.  On 22-NOV, the Frankfurt Swatch store in Germany, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the store.  To commemorate this occasion, a special packaging of the brand new Touch Alarm swatch Be On Time (STAM 100) was sold at the store (sold out by now).  The watch in the paper sleeve is also quite special as it has a nice golden "SWATCH Store Frankfurt 1993-2003" imprint on the strap.  The special packaging is numbered and limited to 110 pcs.
• German Touch Launch Event special.  On 15-NOV, a Swatch The Club event Train Your Touch (launch of the Touch series) took place at a fitness studio in Offenbach, Germany.  About 90 club members participated at the event (fitness training and bowling).  A limited special packaging of the Touch Game swatch Ask Your Swatch was given to participants.  The special is limited to only 60 pcs (unnumbered)!  Here is a small report with pictures from the event!  Thanks Semra, Susanne, Wolfgang, ... for a wonderful event :-)
• Swiss Touch Launch Event special.  For the launch of the upcoming Touch swatch watches, a launch event was held in Zurich, Switzerland on 13-NOV.  A special packaging of the Touch Game swatch Ask Your Swatch was distributed in a limited edition of 300 numbered pcs. Thanks to Christine Tanner for the pictures and information.
• Rio de Janeiro Volleyball special.   On the weekend of 9 to 13-OCT, the Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stopped in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  A Swatch The Club Event took place on that weekend. To commemorate the event, a special packaging of the Skin Chrono Skyball (SUYK 107) was released in a limited and numbered edition of 75 pcs.  The packaging is similar to the US Los Angeles special from September, see below for details.  The difference is a picture of Rio de Janeiro on the box.   Participants of the Swatch The Club event also received a welcome package with a T-shirt, swatch backpack, cap, ...  Here is a small report about the club event by Henk Seligman: "Some 20 international G+P members were present as was Patrick (head of swatch the club) and they were treated to a filled programme which included: boating/swimming (on friday 10th), sightseeing (the Christ-statue on Corcovado), a brazilian show and dance with display of samba-costumes.  Of course the participants were wined and dined frequently from fish- and seafood-buffets to meats galore brazilian style (right from the skewers on your plate, and of course all you could eat). A special treat was lunch at the confeitaria Colombo (rice with black beans and all kinds of pork meats) finished off by a rich choice of pastries for which the place is famous. Sightings of Copcabana-beach (where the tounament was held) and Ipanema (sorry no girl when we were there) also included.  The beachvolleyball-tournament during the event were merely the semi-finals and finals of the ladies-teams, the men started their games when we had to go home again.  Weather-conditions were poor, we were treated to rain all during our visit."  Thanks to Henk Seligmann for the nice report.
• Xmas special 2003.  The Xmas special 2003 is called JiNgLe JaNgLe, it will be packaged together with a moose.  When you press the nose of the moose, you can hear the "Jingle Bells" melody.  This year, the xmas special will be sold in a limited edition of 14999 pcs.  Here is a picture of the packaging. Thanks to Emanuele Bertodo for the info and pictures.
• Spiga store 1st anniversary event.  To celebrate the first anniversary of the special store in the Via della Spiga in Milano, Italy, an event party took place on 29-OCT-2003 in "parking majno" (via majno) and a special square swatch called Flying Treasure (SUBK111) has been released.  The watch is very very nice, it is limited to 500 pcs.  Even better is the more limited (200 pcs) special packaging of the watch that was also distributed at the 1st anniversary event.  The special packaging is a plexiglass suitcase containing the watch and a box with a very high quality, arty brochure.  Participants also could take home a nice special chair, similar to the chair distributed at the Wristory Event in 2001. Update: Here is a nice report by Rob Gough with lovely pictures about the event!  The official Swatch webpage contains a nice feature about the Spiga store and the current collection, check it out!  Thanks to Rob Versteeg of Squiggly, Roberto Quadrini, Andrea Marco Faggioli, and Laura Magon for the information.
• Japanese Access special.  An access special called Familiar (SKK124D) has been in Japan in a limited edition of 2000 pcs.  It is released by a baby shop called familiar.  The watch is packaged in a nice paper box.  Here is a picture of the opened box.  The watch is a new model, called Clearance Two (SKK124).  It is a Citypass Swatch, therefore not usable for skiing!  It is not yet released on its own but it will be available soon!  You can find more pictures of the Familiar special at Yasuhiro Minato's excellent swatch page.  Thanks to Yuji Tada and Alain Choisy for the pictures and information.
• Dada ist da!  On 25-OCT, Swatch placed a full page advertisement in one of Germany's biggest newspapers:  Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.  As you can see, the full page ad looks quite empty besides the line "Dada ist da!" (Dada is here), so the newspaper also contained six more small ads containing pieces of the Dada Traces Swatch special.  When completed, the ad looks like this.  It also contains some information about the Dada movement and the restauration of the Dada-House in Zurich, Switzerland. I cannot remember  that Swatch has ever put a full page ad in one of Germany's newspapers...  So a very nice ad to draw some attention on Swatch again!
• Zürich store opening special.  A new Jellyfish swatch store has opened on 9-OCT in Zürich, Switzerland.  A special packaging of the Champs de Züri gent (GR134V), limited and and numbered to 300 pcs was released.  Here is a picture of the back of the packaging.  Here are pictures from the opening event.  Here are more pictures from the event on the official swatch site.  Thanks to David Rippmann and Christine Tanner for the pictures and information.
• Dutch 'Bep van Klaveren' Special.   The Swatch Store Rotterdam and 'Made in Rotterdam' honor the Dutch Olympic light weight boxing champion of 1928, Bep van Klaveren, with a special packaging (250 pcs, not numbered). The pack contains a (Dutch) book with interviews, a CD with interviews, and the Translucent Dream (SUDK105) with an image of Bep van Klaveren on the strap.  You can buy the packaging through squiggly.
• Club Swatch 2003.  The award for the most boring swatch of the year goes to:  Flipped Out (SUFZ101), the new club swatch 2003.  Here is a picture of the content of the packaging of the watch.  Thanks to Alain Choisy for the picture.
• New Scuba Access.  A new scuba access Mountains Sentinel (SHB109) is now available in Switzerland.  The watch is not in the current swatch catalogue.  Thanks to Alain Choisy for the picture and information.
• Austria Starmania specials.  Swatch is a co-sponsor of the TV show Starmania in Austria.  Two special Starmania swatch watches are now available in the Swatch shops in Austria:  An access swatch 4StarsOnly (access Moonstruck (SKK115) with a new strap) and a gent swatch Lot´s of Stars (a gent Transparent (GK209) (?) with a new strap).  The official swatch site contains some more information about the watches (in German).
• Dada Movement Swatch.  Read all about it on the official swatch webpage.  It seems that a Dada special swatch is now available in Switzerland:  A gent special Dada Traces (GZ184).   Here is a closeup of the watch face.  Thanks to Jacky Beauverd (la mine d'or) for the pictures.
• FR@gMentS OF >TIME< WITH SWATCH WATCHES.  A new web page by french artist Laurent Stefani has just been opened:  It is called FR@gMentS OF >TIME< (new address!).  Laurent has his own vision of creating art works made with and made of swatch watches, so check it out!
• NYC Times Square Swatch Store.  A new swatch store was opened on 1-MAY at 8PM (the last workers left the store at 6PM!) at the Time Square (Broadway and 45th Street) in New York City.  Here is a small report by Aleksandr Grushko about the opening event:  "No special watches / no special packagings were produced for the opening event.  The employees, however, got a special treat - a watch ("Blue Jacket" access) with a loop that says "Thank You, from Nicolas" (only those employees who are the first to work at the Times Square store got it, so they only made about 10 of these loops).   Ref.code is SKN104D.  Nicolas Hayek sent quite a few watches from his personal collection to be displayed at the store (2 Keith Haring watches, 3 Folon watches, 2 "Breakdance" watches, "Hocus Pocus", etc.).  The store won't carry any older watches for sale."  Here is a picture of the construction site and here is an older picture from last winter.  Update:  Here are pictures and impressions by Brian Pier from his recent visit to the store.  Thanks to Thomas Bürki and Aleksandr Grushko for the pictures and information.
• Nuremberg Store Opening Square special.  On 2-OCT, a new swatch store opened in Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Germany.  To commemorate this event, a very very special swatch was sold on the opening day in a limited edition of 150 pcs (it sold out immediately!):  A new square swatch called Sabotage (SUAB400C) with a nice embossed black strap.  It is not "just another" watch with a refitted strap, but it is a model that was never sold before.  If you look closely at the dial, you will note that "(c) SWATCH AG 2000" is imprinted on the dial, the production code is also from 2000 (week 42 of 2000).  So it is an older watch that was already produced but it was withdrawn from sale at last minute for the first square collection.  The watch (not numbered)  is packaged with a nice paper sleeve with a number xxx/150.  The text on the sleeve reads:  "Swatch versetzt Nürn 'Berge'" (swatch can move a mountain).  A nice special 'i love swatch' heart made of gingerbread (Lebkuchen, a speciality from Nuremberg) was also given away during the day.
• Los Angeles Volleyball special.   On the weekend of 17 to 21-SEP, the Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stopped in Los Angeles, USA.  A Swatch The Club Event took place on that weekend. To commemorate the event, a special packaging of the Skin Chrono Skyball(SUYK 107) was released in a limited and numbered edition of 75 pcs.  The special packaging is a carton box containing a volleyball with a picture of the FIVB tour on the side.  Participants of the Swatch The Club event also received a welcome package with a T-shirt, swatch backpack, cap, ...  Hereis a detailed report about the event with a few pictures by Tracey Waldron and Brian Pier (Brian's photos just added!). Thanks to Tracey Waldron and Brian Pier for the information and pictures.
• Dresden "Festival der Sinne" special.  For the first anniversary of the Swatch Store in Dresden and celebrating the Festival der Sinne (festival of senses), a quite nice special packaging (limited and numbered to 100 pcs) of the Frenzied Purple gent (GE121) has been released.  The watch comes in a little bag made of velvet material, it carries a small certificate with the number on the back.  The special is already sold out.  Thanks to Holger Brinkmann for the pictures.
• Italian Swatch Store specials.  Germany has them, so Italy has to get them as well:  Five different swatch stores in the area of Milano (Sesto S. Giovanni, Rescaldina, Carugate, Paderno Dugnano, and Busnago) have released a special packaging numbered and limited to 200 pcs each.  The packaging (a nice wooden box with a paper sleeve) can contain any swatch from the current condition.  Thanks to Alain Choisy for the information and pictures.
• Wristory Box.  Recently, a special packaging calledSwatch Wristory Box has been released by Swatch Taiwan. Less than 200 pieces were actually distributed. Here is a picture of the back of the box. The watch inside can be any swatch from the previous collection (warehouse clearing time!).  Update: The Wristory box is also available at Swatch Stores in Germany.  Each store can pick a few older models for the boxes, and you have to buy the watch to get the box.    Thanks to Yih-Jeng Wu for the information and pictures.
• Italy Beach Volleyball special.   On the weekend of 3 to 7-SEP, the Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stopped in Milano, Italy.  A Swatch The Club Event took place on that weekend.  To commemorate the event, a special packaging of the Skin Chrono Skyball(SUYK 107) with a real Beach Volleyball, limited and numbered to 80 pcs, was released.  Participants of the event also received a welcome package with Swatch The Club marsupium pouch, cap, T-shirt, FIVB bracelet pass, FIVB sticker, neck key chain with pass.  Ezio Perino has two pictures (pic1 / pic2) from the event on his webpage.
• Vendôme Swatches available in more stores.  The swatch watches from the 'exclusive' Vendôme collection are now also available at the three Boutiques Tourbillon in Switzerland (Basel, Lausanne, and Lugano).  The Boutiques Tourbillon sell luxury watches such as Breguet, Blancpain, Jaquet Droz, Glashütte Original. Thanks to Thomas Bürki for the information.
• Swatch Cleanup Day.  In conjunction with the Swatch Beach volleyball event in Los Angeles (September 18 - 22):  Swatch Wants You for a good cause on 20-SEP.
• Stretchy french special packaging.  A very nice special packaging of the very nice gent swatch Stretchy (GE119) has been released in France.  Limitation is unknown, the packaging is not numbered.  Thanks to Philippe Danjean for the information and pictures.
• Portugal Beach Volleyball special.   On the weekend of 23 to 27-JUL, the Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stopped in Espinho, Portugal.  A Swatch The Club Event took place on that weekend.  To commemorate the event, a special packaging of the Scuba Access Cut Shot (SHK104), limited and numbered to 73 pcs, was released.  The plastic box contains beach sand from Espinho, a swatch beach towel, the watch and some papers of the event.  There are two versions of the box: one with blue and one with red handles. Thanks to Pedro Coelho and Ricardo Rocha for the information and pictures.
• Austria Beach Volleyball special.   On the weekend of 30-JUL to 3-AUG, the Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stopped in Klagenfurt, Austria.  A special version of the Scuba access Antifreeze (SHK100C; an additional loop around the beach volley strap) was made for this event and used as an entrance pass.  Limitation is 2000 pcs. 1700 pcs of these were given to VIPs.  Thanks to Otto Schreiber and Rainer Fitz  for the information and picture.
• German FIVB Beach Volleyball special.  On the weekend of 25 to 29-JUN, the Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stopped in Berlin, Germany. A nice Swatch The Club event organized by Swatch The Club Germany took place in Berlin.  To commemorate the event, a special packaging of the Skin Chrono Skyball (SUYK 107), limited and numbered to 111 pcs, was released.  Update: Here is a report about the event by Nikolai Kuttler.  Thanks to Robert Bienia for the information and pictures.
• London Swatch Exhibition.  Rob Versteeg (squiggly) reports:  "The Design Museum in London (by Tower Bridge) announces the "20 Years of Swatch Exhibition".  This exhibition is running for three months, from the 15th July through the 15th October 2003 at the Design Museum in London - located at 28 Shad Thames, London. The exposition includes the first Swatch watches ever produced in 1983 and highlighting Art Specials designed by Keith Haring, Pedro Almodovar and many other legendary artists." As I could not find anything about the exposition on the website of the museum (the Peter Saville exhibition is probably great!), I got the following info from the museum: "We do have a very small Swatch installation in the Museum at the moment but it is not featured on our web site as it is only one cabinet. Unfortunately we do not have a catalogue or any other literature about it."  So this exhibition alone is probably not worth a visit to London.  Here is some information on the official swatch website.  If you want to see a real Swatch Museum, try the World Museum near Milano, Italy.  Thanks to Philippe Danjean for the information.
• Montreux Dream Night club event.  Here is a nice report by Christine Tanner from the Montreux Dream Night Swatch The Club event which took place on 10-JUL:  "On Thursday July 10 Swatch the club International organized a Montreux Dream Night for Swatch the Club members. Around 200 Swatch members, Swatch employees, press people and Swatch retailer where invited to Montreux. We met for an apéro at the Hotel Majestic Suisse on the terrace with a beautiful view on the lake of Geneva. The new fall/winter collection was presented and everybody received a Swatch from the new collection, called Vinyl Hour (SUDB 108; the special loop around the strap was sent to collectors a few weeks after the event!). Later we had a fabulous buffet in the same hotel: Lots of fine wines, canapés, amuse bouches, sandwiches, fruits and more.  On the terrace Swatch made a lucky draw for a really special Swatch. The Montreux 2003 Swatch limited to 300 pieces with the imprint on the strap "for artist only" (GN212C). This watch is given to performing artist, by Claude Nobs, the big chief of the Montreux Jazz festival. Ten of this rare special have been given to participants of the event. We also received a concert ticket an had access to the concert of the fabulous singer and performer Craig David. But the evening begun with the "little dreams band" a project by Phil Collins, who supports young artists to realize there dreams. Very early in the morning we went home very happy with music in the ears."  Here are a few very nice pictures by Christine from this event.
• Locarno Film Festival Special.  Here is a picture of the special swatch for the Locarno Film Festival 2003.  As you can see in the picture, it comes in a paper sleeve.  It is the Genetic Code Club special (GZ164) with a new strap.  Here is a prototype version of the sleeve and the watch (the prototype sleeve is cut open and it has an additional loop around the strap).  Thanks to Alain Choisy and David Rippmann for the information and pictures.
• Marseille Beach Volleyball special.  On the weekend of 16 to 20-JUL, the Swatch-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stopped in Marseille, France.  A Swatch The Club Event took place on that weekend.  To commemorate the event, a special version of the Scuba Access Cut Shot (SHK104), with a special loop around the strap, was given to participants.  Only 13 special swatches were distributed, so this access variant is very rare!  Participants of the event also received a welcome package with cloth sea, cap, folder for the press, and T-shirt. Thanks to Roberto Tintori for the information and pictures.
• Taiwanese Valentine special.  For the chinese valentine day on 4-AUG, swatch in Taiwan will release a special packaging (limited to 520 pcs) of the gent swatch Till The Butterflies (GE118) and Here Comes The Drizzle (GB214).  Thanks to Sophia Chang for the information and picture.
• Portuguese Cinema special.  A new Swatch gent special Curta-Metragem (GZ181, price is 50 EUR) celebrating the portuguese cinema director Manoel de Oliveira (95 years!) will be released in Portugal on 10-JUN.  Manoel de Oliveira is considered as the biggest countenance of the Portuguese cinema.  His films have been recognized in the festivals of Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Montreal among others.  He has received a lot of rewards, e.g. a special gold lion in the festival of Venice.  The watch is a new design in a special black paper package (size: 26 cm x 14,5 cm).  Here is a picture of the opened packaging.  A maxi version (MGZ181) of the watch also exist, only 60 pcs have been made.  Retail price for the maxi is 160 EUR (ouch! what a shame).  Update:  A nice special wood packaging of the gent swatch, limited and numbered to 750 pcs, is also available. Thanks to Pedro Coelho and Ricardo Rocha for the information and pictures.
• Old Automatic Prototypes. You have probably seen on ebay recently quite a few automatic prototypes from the early 90s (Figueiras and Harajuku). Here on David Rippmann's nice website is the full story about these watches, quite interesting!
• Gold / Pioneer Swatch The Club Event.  The traditional gold / pioneer Swatch The Club event took place on 18/19-JUN in Switzerland. Here is the programme of the event.  Many pictures from the event can be found on David Rippmann's nice website. Here and here are more pictures from the event.  Here are Peter Rollings pictures from the event.  Here is Nikolai Kuttler's report from the event.  Here is Robert Gough's report from the event.
• Logo variation.  Here is an interesting "swatch" logo variation of the current gent Lost In The Field (GS113).  I would think that such errors are impossible right now...  Thanks to Paulo Jorge Almeida for the information and picture.
• International Gstaad Event.  Here and here are pictures from the international club event in Gstaad, Switzerland on 20 to 22-JUN.
• Italian Sotheby's Fall/Winter Collection 2003 launch special. On 2-JUL, the upcoming F/W Collection 2003 was shown to the press at a special event in Milano, Italy, at Sotheby's.  A special packaging containing the new gent swatch Flaky (GW138) was released for the event, it is limited and numbered to 300pcs. Here is a picture of the back.  Hereis a small report with many pictures from the launch event.  Thanks to Emanuele Bertodo and Matteo Rossi for the info and pictures.
• Fall / Winter 2003 collection.  This time, squiggly is first: You can see the upcoming Fall/Winter 2003 collection on squiggly's website.  Or you can see most of the collection here at the small report of the Milano launch event.
• Swatch Fakes.  At the height of the swatch craze in the early 90s, swatch fakes from far east were quite common.  It is quite astonishing that currently, a few copies of swatch watches can be found on ebay: Amour Total (GN 196 / SS 01),  Crazy Train (GG 194 / SS 01), Bad Trip (GB 206 / SS 01).  Thanks to Marc Lenzinger for the information and pictures.
• Montreux Jazz Festival 2003 special.  The special swatch (it comes in a special sleeve) for the Montreux Jazz Festival 2003 is designed by Ted Scapa (born in the Netherlands, lives in Switzerland).  On 19-JUN at the Gold Member Club event, Ted Scapa signed and painted on the sleeve of the watch during an artistic workshop.
• Lausanne Olympic Museum Anniversary special.  To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, a special gent swatch Musee Olympique Lausanne 2003 (GZ182) is now available only at the store of the Olympic Museum.  I don't think that the watch is limited. Thanks to Marc Lenzinger for the information and picture.
• UK Phil Collins event.  A Swatch The Club event for the UK launch of the Phil Collins suitcase took place in the famous (007) Pinewood Studios near London on 11-MAY.  Read all about the event on Nikolai's homepage or on Rob's homepage.
• FIVB Beachvolleyball club events / special.  Swatch and the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) have entered into a global partnership for the Beach Volleyball World Tour 2003-2004. Swatch The Club is offering three events to witness the FIVB World Tour 2003:  Berlin, Germany (27th June - 29th),  Marseille, France (18th July - 20th), Klagenfurt, Austria (30th July - 3rd Aug).  A strictly limited and numbered special packaging of the Swatch FIVB special Skyball (SUYK107, a skin chrono, I don't think that the watch is available so far) will be available in Berlin and probably at the other two events as well.
• Mystery Park specials.  On 24-MAY, the Mystery Park (a theme park) was opened in Switzerland.  Three different special swatch watches in special packaging have been released.  They are for sale at the first extraterrestrial swatch store which is located in the park.  The watches are: Kooxtun (synchro.beat, YKS8000C, packaging), Mixba (access, SFK100, packaging), Tzaquali(Scuba, SHN105, packaging).  The packaging is similar to the Casino Lugano special and the Club Wristory special.  Limitation of the watches is unknown.  Currently, the watches are only sold at the park.  In the fall, the watches will be available in all swatch shops in Switzerland.  More information about the swatch watches and the park can be found at the official swatch page.
• Austria Surf Worldcup special.  From 25-APR to 4-MAY, the Surf Worldcup took place at the Neusiedler See in Austria.  An access special Surf Worldcup Neusiedler See(SHK102, Chill Factor with a special strap) has been released for this event.  Limitation is unknown.  Thanks to Roberto Tintori for the information and picture.
• Swiss Collection special packaging.  A special packaging Swiss Collection (GZS 33, not limited, not numbered) containing five swatch watches will be released in Switzerland (only!) at the end of May.  The packaging will contain the following five watches:  Cheesy Toast, Typical Square, Barry, Highness Of Zermatt, Champs de Züri.  There will be an acoustic surprise when opening the packaging!  Price for the box will be 350 Swiss Francs (about $255 US).  Here is a picture of the actual box.   Thanks to Christine Tanner and Marc Lenzinger for the pictures.
• Cancelled Pablo Picasso swatch.  In 1994, swatch had planned to release a Pablo Picasso swatch called Embraceable.  This project was cancelled (for unknown reasons) and only a few dummy swatches exist.  This watch is very very rare.  Here is a picture of the Embraceable dummy, upper / lower part of the strap (better pictures now).
• Lifeball 2003 Charity Auction.   A good tradition continues in the 7th successive year:  For this year's lifeball event (AIDS charity, takes place on 24-MAY) in Vienna, Austria, swatch auctions a unique(!) and certainly one-of-a-kind SKIN designed and embellished by the renowned MISSONI fashion house.  The watch will be auctioned online between 15 and 30-MAY.  Proceeds will to benefit the Elton John Aids Foundation.   Here is some more information on the official swatch website.
• Sauber Team specials.  The swiss Formula One racing team Sauber has released two swatch specials:  A gent plastic swatch with a special strap is available in the package that you get when you join the team membership (160 Swiss Francs, about $110 US).  If you have a lot of money on your hands (1600 Swiss Francs, about $1100 US), you can join the Sauber supporters club.  You will receive an Irony Swatch then.  Here are a few good pictures on Marc Lenzinger's excellent web page.  Thanks to Michael Kuo for the information and pictures.
• Karlsruhe store opening special.  The 23rd German Swatch store was opened on 17-APR in Karlsruhe, Germany (my old college town!).  To celebrate the opening, a special packaging (limited and numbered to 100 pcs) was issued.  The special papersleeve can contain any swatch watch from the 2003 spring / summer collection.  The special sold out on the opening day already.
• Munich Kaleidoscope special.  From 11 to 21-APR, the "Travelling Kaleidoscope" exhibition featuring 100 one-of-a-kind art works created by an invited list of artists, athletes, VIPs, designers, ...., is shown in Munich, Germany (Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Andreas Baumgartl, Platzl 4a, Mon to Sun, 12 to 19h).  The exhibition was previously shown at the Athens Kaleidoscope event in JUN-2002.  To celebrate the opening of the exhibition on 11-APR, a VIP party took place on the 10th.  A special Munich Kaleidoscope packaging (GK392-1, limited to 450 pcs, not numbered) of the olympic gent Kranaos (GK392) was given away at the VIP party (250 pcs).  Here is a picture of the front of the box, and here is a picture of the back.  The remaining 200 pcs were sold limited at a Swatch The Club Germany event on the 11th.  Former olympic champion Carl Lewis was present at the Swatch Store Munich to sign the special.  A very nice event, here is a small report with a few pictures from the event!  Two german press reports about the opening of the exhibition can be found at the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Münchener Merkur.
• Italian Melting Pop special.  For the Melting Pop art exhibition at the Palazzo Delle Papesse in Siena, Italy, a special packaging Melting Pop limited and numbered to 120 pcs has been released during a Swatch The Club event on 12-APR.  The watch is sealed in plastic with the exhibition catalogue.  Here is a small report with a few pictures about the event.  Thanks to Roberto Quadrini for the information and pictures.
• Swatch Museum opening special / event.  On 15-MAR, a swatcher's dream became reality:  The first museum devoted to swatch watches opened a permanent exhibition near Milano, Italy.  Check out the nice webpage of the museum for details!  To commemorate this event, a nice special packaging of the Black Sheep Too X-Large was released, it is limited to 250 pcs.  The special was distributed at an event of Swatch The Club, about 200 collectors from Italy and 50 international collectors participated.  Each collector received a nice bag with the special and lots of other stuff (sticker, booklet, pen, ...).  A wonderful event (thanks for everything, Fiorenzo!), a great museum, definitely worth a visit when you are in the area of Milano.  Here is a detailed report with many pictures from this wonderful event.   You can read a report about the event on Nikolai's nice webpage.
• Xtreme Verbier access special.  For the Xtreme Verbier skiing contest in Verbier, Switzerland (on 21 to 23-MAR), Swatch has released a special access swatch Xtreme Verbier (a Vertical Flavour [perfect watch name for this event!] access with a special strap).  Limitation is unknown so far.  If you are able to go to Verbier for this event, I can absolutely recommend it.  It is really breathtaking!  A swatch the club event took place as well!  Here you can find a report by Nikolai Kuttler about the event.  Thanks to Alain Choisy for the information and picture.
• LSG Holding Millenium special.  You probably know the Lufthansa Millenium special, a nice but not too rare (more than 15000 pcs, numbered on the guarantee paper) special released for the millenium by German air line Lufthansa.  Recently, a much rarer version of this special surfaced, it is called LSG Holding Millenium special.  I think that LSG holding is the catering company owned by Lufthansa.  Here is a picture of the LSG Holding special (GM714C).  The difference to the Lufthansa Millenium special is the printing on the sleeve, the guarantee paper is not numbered, and the logo on the strap does not show the Lufthansa logo but the LSG Holding logo (of course :-)
• Phil Collins swatch watches.  Ex-Genesis singer Phil Collins has designed two swatch watches.  They will be released in April with proceedings going to charity.  See Phil's official webpage for further details..  Here is a picture of  two Phil Collins swatch watches:  Drum Phil (SUDZ100, X-Large) and a gent called Phil's Greatest (GZ180).  The X-Large doesn't look too bad.  Apparently, the watches will be sold in a special packaging (like a flight case, the flight case is numbered) also containing a CD, 10 unpublished photos, and a biography.  Price for the special packaging will be 150 Euros, it will be limited to 9999 pcs.   The watches will also be available without the special flight case at normal retail price.  The official webpage of Swatch also has more information about the watches. Here are the official press pictures from Swatch.  Thanks to Rob Versteeg and Ricardo Menezes for the information.
• Portuguese Cookie Face special.  A very nice special packaging (closed / opened) of the Cookie Face gent swatch (GK386) has just been released in Portugal by the Oeiras Parque store.  It is limited and numbered to 250 pcs and comes in a beautiful acrylic display.  The watch has been designed by a portuguese artist called Pedro.  A signing event with Pedro for the release of the special packaging also took place at the store. Thanks to Pedro Coelho for the info and pictures.
• Taiwanese Valentine special packagings. The current valentine swatch Aiming for your Heart is sold in Taiwan in a special packaging with a Jupiter doll, whose size is approximately 20x20x20cm.  This Jupiter doll has the function of recording voices or sounds.  This set is not sold in any swatch stores; instead, you have to order it in "7-Eleven" convenience stores.  Limitation is 2000 pcs.  Here is a funny ad picture for the special.  Another gift in addition to the valentine swatch was available at official Taiwan swatch stores:  A nice scarf (available in four different colour variations).   Thanks to Sophia Chang and Russell Wu for the  information and pictures.
• Less and more expensive Maxi swatches.  The price for Maxi swatches will double:  from 75 Euro to 150 Euro (~$162 US) :-((  Also, there will be only one maxi swatch in each collection in the future. Thanks to Emanuele Bertodo for the info.
• Spiga/Vendôme Valentine special.  The new Spiga store in Milano, Italy is selling a nice gent Valentine special called Take Your Heart (GE113P).  Here is a picture of the packaging.  No idea about the limitation.  The watch is available also at the Vendôme store in Paris but without the nice golden frame packaging.  The nice golden frame packaging is the standard watch packaging for the Spiga store.  A special event took place in Milan at the Spiga Store on 13-FEB (5.30pm to 7.30pm) for the launch of the Spiga Valentine special.  Here are some comments by Emanuele about the event: "a small "aperitivo" with free drinks and small food for a little group of collectos from Milano's area...  They were selling a special verison of Lulubella, with a long red band and lot of hearts all around...but it was an idea of the store  more than a real special watch."  At the Vendôme store in Paris, a special reception for collectors and press was held on valentine's day at lunch time where nice food and wine were offered.  Only 40 pieces of the valentine special were sold (in minutes) together with a special feather with pearls and a nice bracelet with exactly the same imprint as the watch.  Thanks to Arnaud Perche, Philippe Danjean, Emanuele Bertodo and Andrea Marco Faggioli for the information, pictures, and update.
• Lucky You french special packaging.  The gent Lucky You (GS111) from the new collection is available in France in a special packaging (similar to the Wouaf packaging from last year).  Here is a picture of the opened packaging. No idea about the limitation. Thanks to Thomas Sonneville for the pictures and to Sascha (BonZai) for the information.
• German Swatch "Movienight of Extreme Sports" special.  In January and February 2003, the Swatch Movienight of Extreme Sports will be shown in several cinemas across Germany.  For this occasion, a limited special packaging (containing a Swatch Movienight of Extreme Sports [ref.no. SKK103OAD, a Clearance access watch with a new strap] with one day ticket for the Sölden (Austria) skiing area and one DVD; 999 pcs) will be sold in the cinemas participating at the screening of the Swatch Movienight of Extreme Sports.  Here is a picture of the opened packaging.  Price will be 80 Euro.
• Greece Alpha Bank special.  A new Swatch watch has been launched in Greece with the co-operation of Swatch and Alpha Bank. It has been designed by Greek designers and it can only be purchased by owners of the "Athens 2004 Visa" credit card, issued by Alpha Bank (each cardholder can purchased no more than 2 watches). The watch represents black figures of athletes and it comes in a nice special packaging.  The watch is not numbered.  Thanks to Stavros Nikolaidis for the information and picture.
• Thailand treasure hunt special.  A special set of swatch watches and other goodies was available in a joint promotion between Swatch and Djuice (a mobile phone company in Thailand). It was part of a treasure hunt where 1000 swatches were distributed around Bangkok (and possibly Pattaya).  Those swatches were not for sale but to be found by the treasure hunters. There were 3 designs, thus 333 pcs each. Interestingly, each has a new code and extra loop:  Batsknight (GK331C), Swatch Kiss (GN181C), Love Bite (GN176C).  The most complete set consists of:  a pouch, a bandana, a nametag/badge, a bottle with sand + message, a treasure map and 3 swatches.  The pouch, bandana, badge and map were given to all participants but the bottle is only for the VIPs and their names are printed on the bottle.  Here is a picture of the VIP set.  Very nice and very rare!
• Taiwanese dealer's launch special.  On 13-JAN, a special packaging containing the gent Jeu dEnfant (GL113) has been distributed in Taiwan for the launch of the new spring / summer 2003 swatch collection.  Here is some more information by Sophia Chang from Taiwan:  "It is rumored that it is a DIY product by Swatch Taiwan branch employees. They put the swatch in a transparent bowl and put some real candies inside then fix them with jelly type wax (more soft then usual). Package with a paper box and two stamps inside the open end and the up-side".  Limitation is around 150 to 200 pcs. Thanks to Sophia Chang and Ellis Tang for the  information and pictures.
• Frankfurt Airport mini special.  A new swatch store was opened recently at the Frankfurt airport.  To commemorate the opening, a special luggage tag was given away with every watch purchased.  Here is a picture of the back of the luggage tag.  Note that a strap looking like a swatch watch strap (but it is not an original swatch watch strap) is used to affix the luggage tag to the suitcase.  Limitation is unknown but not very high.  Finally, something different!  (not a tin!). Thanks to "dee" for the pictures