Stay tuned to
Swatch
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 (Last updated:
08-MAR-2024)
news from 2016 are below:
- Squiggly Auction. Squiggly
held a huge Swatch
auction on 16-DEC. 190 lots of rare and superrare Swatch
watches were auctioned. The lots included Kiki
Picasso (EUR 13000,00 tax excl), a Puff
set (EUR 16000,00 tax excl), Mimmo
Paladino (EUR 7500,00 tax excl) and many rare variants and
prototypes. Some of the final results were quite high.
Until Squiggly publishes the official result, you can browse the final
result here.
- Xmas Event 2016. The
traditional Xmas
Club Event 2016 took place in Rotterdam and Amsterdam,
Netherlands from 02 to 04-DEC. About 110 club members
participated at the event. A very exciting and surprising
special packaging Magic Claus Set (SZS24) was distributed to the event
participants, it is limited to only 200 pcs. The large red box
(about 26 x 29 x 5 cm) contains a New Gent Magic
Claus (SUOZ246S, numbered xxx/200
on the back), a special pair of sunglasses (Eyes
Of Claus, numbered!)
and a white beard that can be affixed
on the watch face. The outside of the
box is imprinted "Swatch xxx/200 swatch club Xmas event 2016".
Does anyone know the exact name of the special? It is "Santa
..."?!? Here is a detailed report from the Rotterdam Xmas event with
many photos.
- CSL Behring special. On
25-APR-2016, Australia’s largest and most successful biotechnology
company CSL celebrated its
100th
anniversary. A special Swatch CSL
100th Anniversary (SUOR705I) was released to commemorate
the anniversary. The watch is packaged in a nice paper
sleeve and has a special strap with
the 100th Anniversary CSL logo.
Thanks to Fabien Perissinotto
for the hint.
- Swatch technology. Swatchgroup
is now actively promoting its technology leadership: Patents
/ Internet
of Things (IoT) / Industry
4.0. Especially interesting for Swatch collectors: ETA
plant in Boncourt (where the Swatch SISTEM51
is manufactured) and detailed information about Swatch Bellamy
(contactless payment).
- New York and Hong Kong Destination
specials. Two new Destination specials for New York and
Hong Kong are now listed next to the Dubai
Destination special on the Swatch
website: 1. 1535 Broadway
(SUOZ244); 2. Flower
Bay (SUOZ232). "1535 Broadway" is
the address of the New York Marriott
Marquis hotel and the The
View Restaurant & Lounge. the Swatch
store at Times Square (in the new location).
- Portuguese Charity special. A
new charity special has been released in Portugal: A Gent Docinho (GZ309). The watch is
packaged in a cute paper sleeve.
Every watch that has been sold will grant one day of food to one of
the babies that currently live in the Ajuda
de Berço institution. Previously in 2002, Swatch had
released another Portuguese special (Fraldinhas
(GZ176)) which raised money for the charity. In late December,
an outdoor advertisement campaign will
promote the watch. Some print ads and even a TV ad are also
planned.
Thanks to Pedro Mota for the information.
- Swiss Destination Watch
collection. At the launch of the second
club watch in Zurich, a new Swiss Destination Watch collection
was unveiled ("ticking postcards"). It consists of seven watches
(packaged in the well known sleeve) which will be available starting
01-DEC for 90 CHF each: 1. Bern;
2. Geneva (SUOZ249); 3. Gotthard (SUOZ257, back of the strap / loop);
4. Jungfrau; 5. Luzern;
6. Zermatt; 7. Zurich.
(definitely inspired by Champs
de Züri (GR134)) The
watches will be available only in the respective cities (Jungfrau in
Interlaken, Gotthard in Tessin). The Swiss newspaper Blick
has a report
about the watches. Update: Here
is the official information about the Greetings From Switzerland
watches, including details about availability (list of Swatch
stores). Update 2: A nice special
box is also available, it holds three watches from the
collection (back of the box).
For the current Grüezi All collection, a similar box is available: front / back.
Thanks to Christine Tanner and
to Fabien Perissinotto for the pictures and information.
- Remembering Jean Robert. The
Swiss Swatch designer Jean Robert passed away in DEC-2016
at the age of 71. Together with his wife Käti Robert-Durrer, he was
responsible
for the product appearance and the design of the Swatch
collections during the "golden", iconic years 1983 to 1989.
They have designed about 360(!) Swatches which went
into production and more than 1000(!!)
Swatch watches in total with examples such as X-Rated,
Nautilus, Grey Memphis, etc. etc! In case that you
have missed it: Here
is a detailed report about the finissage event of the great Robert
& Durrer Exhibition in Winterthur in 2011. As a side
note: I think that I know who actually took the picture
in the newspaper report... Update: Here
is an older report and here
is another recognition of Jean Robert. Update 2: Here
is another background story about him. Thanks to Lauren Stefani for the hint.
- Venice Destination special. The
Venice Destination special Acquagranda
(GZ306) is now available. It comes in the well known paper
sleeve.
- Mix & Match Pins and Loops. Now
you can customize your Swatch with Mix
& Match Pins and Loops. Soon available in your
nearest Swatch store.
- Watchpapst 25th anniversary
special. The well known German Swatch online retailer watchpapst.de is selling a
25th
anniversary Watchpapst special. The special is
limited to 50 pcs and contains two older Gent Swatches (Blue
Conker (GE704) and the Olympic Gent Swatch China
Dreams (GE196)) with a colorful plastic strap. The
two watches are packaged in the well known colorful
plastic box also containing seven
Swatch Guards. The box has a special imprint "25th
Anniversary Watchpapst". The same imprint is also printed
on the side of the outer white
paper box. The bottom of the plastic box tells the history
of Watchpapst...
- Keith Haring Swatch. Keith
Haring decorating
his birthday cake for a celebration in Paris at Le Train
Bleu, 1987. I assume that the colors are a bit strange (ie. no
variant :-)
- Maxi Problems? Recent Maxi
Swatches seem to have a common problem:
The second hand falls down if the Maxi is affixed on a wall.
Does anyone else know this problem?
- Maxi Mania. Now that's what I
call "professional storage": Maxi
Mania .... and that's not all...
- Kenny Scharf unreleased Swatch. Mandala Time (GG130) is an
unreleased Swatch by the US artist Kenny
Scharf. Apparently, the watch (Kenny wanted to call
it Worm Time) was almost ready to be released (in 1994?)
because it already had a reference number. Kenny Scharf also
painted a unique special
packaging for Mandala Time, probably a unique
piece. Similar hand painted special packagings for his Swatch
watches Monster Time and
Fiz N'Zip also exist.
Additionally, he designed a few very nice dials
for Swatch watches.
- Rascal & M.Bartalos special
packaging. Similar to the hand painted special packagings
for the Kenny Scharf Swatch watches, a unique hand painted packaging
for Moonchild by Rascal also
exists. Here is a pictures of the
back of the packaging. Update: Here
is a hand painted special packaging for Running
Time by Michael
Bartalos.
- Times Square Underground Club
event. On 03-DEC, Swatch Club will hold an event "in,
around, or under" Times Square in New York City. Sounds
mysterious! Too bad that it is in parallel to the Xmas Club
event in Rotterdam.
- Art Fair Survival Party at PAMM.
On 17-NOV, the third Thursday
Art Fair Survival Party takes place at the PAMM
(Pérez Art Museum Miami). Swatch Club members are invited and
they will receive complimentary drinks and probably an "Art Fair
Survival Kit". Swatch will feature ten of its
artist special watches, including the works of Kiki Picasso, Keith
Haring, David LaChapelle and several others, along with the second
Swatch Club artist special, Piolin’s
Time, designed by Argentine artists Leo Chiachio and
Daniel Giannone. So finally again a chance to see these good
old Swatch Art specials "in person". Update: Here
are some photos from the party, taken by Swatch. Thanks to Fred McFarland for the
information.
- Dubai Destination special. A
Dubai Destination special New Gent called Desert
Beauty (SUOZ256) special is now available in the UAE
(United Arab Emirates). The watch is packaged in the well known
Destination paper sleeve. You can
find more information in this news
report. Price is a little less than 80 EURO.
- Swatch collection of the Watch &
Clock Museum Wuppertal. The Watch
& Clock Museum Wuppertal was closed after more than 50
years in SEP-2016. The complete collection of the museum was
auctioned on 12-NOV in 677
lots. A collection of approx. 200 Swatch watches was
auctioned as lot
#660. Final price: 1000 EURO plus fees. Less
than 10 EURO per watch (and the collection includes a Swatch
chronometer and a rare production
box from 1988)!
- Tribute to JP Auclair special. Jean-Philippe
Auclair ("JP Auclair") was a Canadian freeskiier and the captain
for Team Americas at the Swatch
Skiers Cup 2014. He died alongside Andreas Fransson in an
avalanche on 29-SEP 2014 on Monte San Lorenzo in Aysen, Chile while
filming. During the last Swatch sponsored Skiers Cup 2015
in Zermatt, Switzerland, a very limited (30 pcs!) commemorative Swatch
Irony Chrono A Tribute to JP Auclair
(YVB402C) was distributed to athletes and
event staff. It is a Irony Chrono Destination
NYC (YVB402) with a special print A
Tribute to JP Auclair on the side of the watch case.
The watch is packaged in a white paper sleeve (front
/ back). So this is a very very
rare Swatch.
Thanks to Ines for the
pictures and to Nicolo for the information.
- 5th anniversary of Swatch Art Peace Hotel. On
11-NOV, the Swatch
Art Peace Hotel celebrated its 5th birthday (it was
actually opened to the artists in APR-2011). Here
is a lengthy report with many pictures from the birthday celebration
event. The Swatch store in the Swatch Art Peace Hotel is
currently decorated in Swatch
Destination style. It also has a few displays of different
destination watches: Shanghai
and Venezia (this is a new
one, release date is unknown) and more (Zurich, Tokyo, New York,
Milan), see also the press
release on the Swatch Website (Sounds of Cities
collection). Only the Shanghai watches are for sale at the
store.
Thanks to Sophia Chang for the
information and pictures and to Fabrizio for the hint.
- SWATCH X UNIKAT. For the launch of the new Unikat
magazine in Germany, a limited Swatch X
Unikat New Gent special is given away in a lottery (30 pcs
only). The special is a New Gent Chicken
Run (SUOW138) with a special Unikat
loop around the strap.
- Xmas special 2016. According to this
report, the Xmas special 2016 is a New Gent called God
Jul (SUOZ222S, 90 EURO), limited and numbered to 8888
pcs. The watch is packaged in a nice green
box. In addition to the watch, a pair of seasonal sunglasses is
also available: The Eyes Of
Santa (110 EURO). It will be available
starting 17-NOV. Update: The Xmas special 2016
and the special sunglasses are available now in a special online
prerelease in the Swatch Online Store.
- Swatch Loves Art in Korea. Swatch presented
the most iconic watches and artist collaboration from the last
23 years at the 15th annual Korea International Art Fair in Seoul (12
to 16-OCT).
- Carpe Diem special. Carpe
Diem produces "Premium Tea Drinks", including Kombucha
tea drink. In 2016, the company has released a special New Gent
Carpe Diem (SUOR705F).
It is a New Gent Backup Red (SUOR705) with a special strap featuring
two Maneki-neko
cats (upper / lower
part) and a special loop around the
strap.
- Soulman Of Vienna special. At the Swatch
Soul City Vienna 1997 snowboard contest (new years eve
1997/98), a special Soulman of
Vienna '97 trophy was presented (my guess is to the winner
Tom Eberharter). Is this considered a Swatch special? :-)
If yes, it may be the heaviest Swatch special (almost 4 kilograms, 23
x 13 x 11 cm) containing a Swatch Soul
City Access watch (SKZ115; yet another Swatch not listed
in the Swatch Finder) and a little snow globe with the Vienna Ferris
Wheel. Here is another
view of the Soulman of Vienna trophy from the top.
- EPE'2015 special. A special Swatch EPE'2015
(SKK124Y) was released for the 17th
European Conference on Power Electronics And Applications
(EPE'2015). The conference took place from 08 to 10-SEP-2015 at
the Geneva Internation Conference
Centre (CICG) in Switzerland. The watch is an Access
Clearance
Too (SKK124) with a special strap
showing the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) at the CERN
in Geneva. The watch is packaged in a nice paper
sleeve.
- Swatch Accessories from the 80s. You may know that
Swatch sold clothing
in the mid 80s in the USA. Did you know that Swatch also sold accessories such as a Swatch razor, a
Swatch toothbrush, and a Swatch comb? I have seen the razor in
different colors but I have rarely seen these accessories completely
new in packaging. Extremely rare and really official! By
the way: Swatch also sold Funwear
& Fungear in the USA during
the mid 80s (probably 1985/86)...
- German Pager prototypes. Here
are two prototype(?) Pager Swatch watches, used for tests in
Germany. Here is a closeup of
the face and here is a closeup of the
back of the two watches. I am fairly sure that these watches are
test models only (labeled Midi-Test and Test Midi Alpha
Deutschland on the back and both have very very low serial
numbers). Does anyone have more information about the
these watches? Am I right that they are unreleased prototypes?
- Blum Collection in Zurich. During the launch of the
second club watch Piolin's Time
in Zurich at the Swatch Lab on 22-SEP, a great surprise was shown to
the invited collectors: In the basement of the lab, parts of the
famous Blum
Collection were on display: Here
is a photo album of some of the watches (prototypes and other mega
rarities) shown in Zurich. Thanks to Christine Tanner and to Yannick Durand for the photos.
- Unknown 1984/85 production box. Here
is a Swatch production box from probably 1984 (or 1985). This
variation is so rare that even Hans
does not have it
in his comprehensive
list. Please note the newer Swatch logo with the trademark
sign (like in 1988 and later) and only three lines of text (like in
1984). The back is made of cardboard, not plastic. The box
contains a High
Tech Gent Swatch (1984) in position #9 and a GB700
Gent Swatch in position #10. Both are glued to the back of the
inner white watch holder made of plastic.
- Unreleased Gent swatch. The press catalogue of the
current Swatch Fall/Winter collection 2016/17 shows a Gent Swatch in
the Magies
d'Hiver collection which apparently has been cancelled and
withdrawn from sale at last minute: Pinezone
(GG221). Here is a better picture of
the cancelled watch.
Thanks to Jörg van Dyk for the
hint.
- Summer Splash Special Club Watch
2016. Europe´s biggest graduation festival Summersplash took place in Antalya, Turkey from 18-JUN
to 09-JUL. Thousands of students from Austria are partying
during the summer. Swatch is a co-sponsor of the festival and
organizes the Swatch
Holi Festival of Colours. At the festival, a special Summer
Splash version (SUOZ215C) of the
current club watch Silverscape (with an extra
Summer Splash loop).
- New Swatch store in Mannheim. On 29-SEP, a new Swatch
store has
opened its doors at the new Q6Q7
shopping center in Mannheim, Germany. No special was
distributed at the opening, only
some small Grüezi All bells.
- Rio Paralympics Volunteer special. The Rio Paralympics
2016 Volunteer special is a New Gent Rio
Paralympics 2016 Volunteer (SUOK111O).
The watch is a New Gent Random
Ghost (SUOK111) with a new strap and it comes packaged in
a paper sleeve with the logo of
the Rio Paralympics and a nice colourful
design on the back of the paper sleeve (Christ
the Redeemer statue!).
- OurSwatch Quattro charity auction. The
extremely limited Swatch watch Our
Swatch Quattro (SUOZ194S) was auctioned
on 26-SEP in aid and for the benefit of Doctors
Without Borders at Auctionata.
www.watch-insider.com has a report
about the auction. Update: The watch was
sold for 8125 EURO.
Here is a video of the
auction in case you missed it. The auction is also featured
on the Swatch
website. Meanwhile, Our
Swatch Quattro is also visible in the Swatch
Finder.
- Sistem51 Irony. According to the Half-Year
Report 2016 of the Swatch
Group, a new product line Sistem51 Irony will be
available in September. Update: watch-insider.com has
all the details
about Sistem51 Irony. The watches
have a 316L-steel case and the price will be 195 EUR to 230 EUR,
depending on the model. The watches will be on sale starting end
of August (online Swatch store first). The first Sistem51
Irony collection consists of six watches: 1. Sistem
Earth (YIS400, 195 EUR); 2. Sistem
Boreal (YIS401G, 210 EUR); 3. Sistem
Soul (YIS402, 195 EUR); 4. Sistem
Arrow (YIS403, 195 EUR); 5. Sistem
Fly (YIS404, 195 EUR); 6. Sistem
Tux (YIS405G, 230 EUR). Update 2: At
the Sistem51 Irony VIP
launch on 18-SEP in Taiwan, a very nice Swatch
winder was given to collectors who bought the complete initial Sistem51
Irony collection (six watches). Update
3: Another Sistem51 Irony model is now available, it
features Swarovski stones around the dial: 7. Sistem
Stalac (YIS406G, 240 CHF). Thanks
to Nikolai Kuttler, Alain Choisy and to Fred
Mcfarland for the hints and to Sophia Chang for the pictures.
- Treviso Comic Book Festival special. The Treviso
Comic Book Festival (TCBF) takes place from 22 to
25-SEP. The Swatch
Store Treviso is a sponsor of the festival. Two special
New Gent Swatch watches Collagecomics (SUOW132C, 222 pcs, Multi
Collage with a TCBF loop around the strap)
and Electrocomics
(SUOB135C, 111 pcs, Electrochat
with a TCBF loop around the strap) have been
released, with numbered packaging customizable by the festival artists Matthew
Cremona and Paul Antiga. More details on www.secondwatch.it.
Here
is an "interesting" Swatch Maxi that was handpainted during the
festival by Simon
Panella.
- Rio Olympics NOC specials. For the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in
August, it seems that NOC specials are issued: A New Gent NOC
Rio Austria (SUOZ209IR) is available in a
special paper sleeve. Update: Here
is a better picture of the Rio NOC watch. Update
2: The following fifteen NOC Rio specials have
been distributed: 1. NOC Rio 2016
(SUOZ209); 2. NOC Rio 2016 Switzerland (SUOZ209C);
3. NOC Rio 2016 Israel (SUOZ209D);
4. NOC Rio 2016 Monaco (SUOZ209E); 5. NOC Rio 2016
Estonia (SUOZ209F); 6. NOC Rio 2016 Azerbaijan (SUOZ209I);
7. NOC Rio 2016 Turkey (SUOZ209J); 8. NOC
Rio 2016 Canada (SUOZ209K);
9. NOC Rio 2016 Finland (SUOZ209N);
10. NOC Rio 2016 Bulgaria (SUOZ209O); 11. NOC
Rio 2016 Germany (SUOZ209Q);
12. NOC Rio 2016 Austria (SUOZ209R);
13. NOC Rio 2016 Bahrain (SUOZ209T);
14. NOC Rio 2016 Egypt (SUOZ209V); 15. NOC
Rio 2016 Liechtenstein (SUOZ209W).
Thanks to Kati for the picture.
- Coco Ho Irony special. This fall, Swatch Proteam
member and professional surfer Coco
Ho will release her own Irony special: Swatch
By Coco Ho (YLZ101). I
assume that the name is not yet final... Previously in
2012, Coco Ho designed the New
Gent Wonder
Tube (SUOZ143). Update: Swatch
By Coco Ho is now available. A special Swatch
By Coco Ho section can now be found on the Swatch
website. Here
is a video of Coco Ho talking about her signature Swatch.
Thanks to Ines Brem for the picture.
- Team USA specials. Two special Swatch watches are now
available in the shop of Team USA (the United States
national sports team representing the USA at international
competitions, eg. Rio Olympics 2016): 1. Chrono Stars & Stripes (SUSZ101, $120
US); 2. New Gent Red White & Blue (SUOZ241, $75 US). Both
watches have the US flag on the loop
around the strap and they are packaged in a nice paper
sleeve.. If you look around, you can find a 20% coupon
for the Team USA shop. According to the Swatch online
shop: "These watches were produced only once, and will not be
available after they sell out. They make a great collector's item!"
Update: These two watches are available in the USA and
Brazil only. USA gets less than 2200 pcs of the New
Gent Red White & Blue
and less than 1100 pcs of the Chrono Stars &
Stripes. Update 2: The Team
USA watches in Brazil come with an extra
Rio 2016 loop around the strap and an extra sticker
on the back of the sleeve. Fun fact: Swatch watches are very
expensive in Brazil. Example: A Chrono costs around R$ 630,00
(~173 EURO; price in Germany 105 EURO). To make it worse, the
Rio Olympic watches are even much more expensive, eg. Chrono Rio
All Around (SUSN100): R$820,00 (~225 EURO(!!), price
in Germany 105 EURO). But the Team USA watches are less
expensive than regular watches from the same product line:
Chrono Stars
& Stripes
(SUSZ101): R$570,00
(~156 EURO). Clearly a missed
opportunity.... Thanks to
German Santiago for the information.
- Swatch 80s sponsorship. Here
is a great flashback to the late 80s about the shooting of a film
sponsored by Swatch. Best line: "It probably wouldn’t be
fair to say that the shoot quickly degenerated into chaos. It didn’t
have a chance to degenerate because it was unorganized from the start."
I'd love to see that movie (The
Good, the Rad and the Gnarly). You can find a
snippet of the film here.
Epic...
- Chinese Valentine special. Swatch
has launched a special New Gent Two Lovers
(SUOZ239) for the Chinese Valentine's Day
on 09-AUG. I
assume that the watch is available in Asia only. Update:
The watch is also available in Geneva (Switzerland), so it is
not exclusive to Asia, I assume that it is available in many other
European stores.
Thanks to Fabien
Perissinotto for the information.
- IOC Irony specials. Recently (probably for the Rio
Olympics), three new IOC Irony specials have been released (with the
additional Olympic Rings on the dial): 1. Appia
Olympia Logo (YWZ400);
2. Windy City Olympia Logo (YGZ401);
3. Vintage Hour Olympia Logo (YGZ402).
Thanks to Jacintha and Yannick Durand for the pictures.
- Jelmoli special. Jelmoli
is a department store in Zurich, Switzerland, one of the oldest and
best known in the world. On 25-AUG, a special Swatch Grand
Magasin Jelmoli 1833 (SUOZ245) has been launched.
The watch is only available at Jelmoli, with one of three
different paper sleeves (inspired by old advertisement posters)
and it costs 80 CHF. Here
is more information on the Jelmoli website and here is the wall
painting at Jemoli.
Thanks to Fabien
Perissinotto for the information and picture and to Daniel Licata
for the picture.
- Shanghai Disney Resort specials. On 01-AUG, two
special Swatch watches have been released for the recently opened Shanghai Disney
Resort: A Gent Joy
Parade (GZ305) and a New Gent Wonderful
Parade (SUOZ243). The specials are packaged in a red paper sleeve. The
watches are only available at the Swatch
store in the Shanghai
Disney Resort. Update: Here
is a chinese
report with more information and pictures about the Swatch
store in the Shanghai
Disney Resort.
- New
Hong Kong city special. About four years ago, a Hong
Kong city special was issued: Hong
Kong Airport (SUJB700D,
a Jelly In Jelly Regisseur
(SUJB700, 2006) with a special
strap in a nice paper
sleeve with the Hong
Kong logo on the side. This watch was sold only in
Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 at the Hong Kong airport. Now, the
city special is available again with a different watch as Hong Kong Special Edition (SUJK701J, a Jelly
In Jelly Ruby
Touch (SUJK701, 2007) with the same special strap). Note
the transparent clasp (instead of black). Update: In
AUG-2016, a third version of this city special has surfaced.
This time, it is Hong
Kong Airport 3 (SUDK104N, a X-Large Vida
Loca (SUDK104) from 2002 with the well known special Hong
Kong strap). Same special
paper sleeve as before.
Thanks to German Santiago and Alain Choisy for the pictures.
- Collector box for 4 Swatch watches. Swatch has
distributed a special Collector Box
for four Swatch watches in a lottery among US club members. The
box is slightly different to the well known collectors box from the
90s and it holds four Swatch watches. It is limited to 100 pcs
for the USA. Is it available somewhere else? Thanks
to Brian Pier for the information and
picture.
- 3rd Mika special. A
rumour from 2015: After the huge success of the two Mika specials Kukulakuku
(SUOZ171) and Kukulakuki
(GZ287S), Mika is working again on a new Swatch related project:
Here is a sneak
preview. Update: It
seems as if the watch becomes reality: On 14-APR-2016, Mika has
posted two pictures with his sister on Instagram: 1. "At
our desk with prototypes @swatch #Mumu"; 2. "Shooting
at my apartment in Milan for new Swatch Watch designed by my sister
Yasmine and I." Looks like a white New Gent with a golden
dial?!? Could Mumu be the name of the watch? Why does Mika
get prototypes? :-) According to this interview
with Carlo Giordanetti (google
translation), the new Mika watch may be launched on
20-MAY. Update 2: The
watch was released on 26-MAY, you can find pictures and info of Mumu-Cucurrucucu (SUOZ210)
on the official
Swatch webpage. An earlier
prototype with a green instead of a white case may also
exist. Update 3: Club
members can participate at a Swatch
contest (probably UK only) where they can win a pair of tickets
and a Meet & Greet with Mika on 05-JUN for his show at London
Palladium. Update 4: secondwatch.it
has a better picture of the earlier
green prototype.
- "Early Release" of F/W collection 2016/17. A part of
the upcoming Swatch Fall / Winter collection 2016/17 is now available
online (not in all countries) as Exclusive Online Pre-Release:
Archi-Mix
collection and (Switzerland only) a few fresh additions to the Grüezi
All collection. Uhrly
(GC116) is a sure winner, spectacular!
Update: The watches have been added to the Swatch
Finder. Update 2: The complete Fall
/ Winter collection 2016/17 can now be found in the press
section of the Swatch webpage. Some great cat Swatch watches! Update
2: The new watches from the Grüezi
All collection are sold in a new special paper
sleeve. Thanks to
Alain Choisy for the picture.
- Chinese Moon Festival special. Swatch has released a
special New Gent Swatch for the Chinese
Moon Festival (15-SEP): Si Du Ye
(SUOZ236). The watch is now available in
Taiwan (and probably other asian
countries). It comes packaged in a nice sleeve (front
/ back). Update: The
watch is now also available in Italy and Switzerland, so it is not
exclusive to Asia. Thanks to
Sophia Chang for the pictures.
- Rio Olympics Volunteer special? Is this
Swatch the Rio
2016 Olympic Games volunteer special? Update: Yes,
it is. The watch is packaged in a nice paper
sleeve. Ref.no. is GZ705.
- Typo. Spot the error :-)
- Locarno Film Festival 2016 special. A special New Gent
Swatch for the Locarno Film
Festival 2016 (03 to 13-AUG) is now available in the Swiss
Online Store: Black Lacquered / LFF
2016 (SUOB101D).
- Bellamy Brazil
launch. Swatch
Bellamy, the Swatch "pay-by-the-wrist" smart watch with a
contactless payment feature will
be launched in Brazil in July. The full collection
consisting of four watches is available in the Swatch
Brazil online store. A special Swatch
Bellamy Samba (SVIS100-1101) is available, right in time
for the Rio Olympics. Price for Swatch Bellamy in Brazil is R$725,00 (~200
EURO)!
- Destination Vienna and other city specials. On 05-JUL,
a Destination Vienna city special (a New Gent Prater
Melodies (SUOZ227)) was
launched during a club
event at the Prater (about 40 participants). The watch is
packaged in the well known paper sleeve
(with special stickers). As usual, the watch is only available
in Vienna. More city specials are now available: 1. What
Happens In Vegas... (SUOZ234, Las Vegas); 2. Munch Me
(GZ413, Munich, the only Gent in the series); 3. Tutta
Mia La Citta (SUOZ228, Milano); 4. Miami
Vibes (SUOZ230, Miami);
5. She
Rocks (SUOZ235, New York
City).
- Touch Zero Two. At
the annual
shareholder assembly of Swatch Group (11-MAY), Nick Hayek
announced the new Swatch Touch
Zero Two which will be launched for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in
August. The watch will measure your activity such as clapping
etc. Update: The Touch
Zero Two was launched in Munich, Germany, during the Swatch
Prime Line Event on 02-JUL. In Munich, the watch was
available with two special Prime
Line loops around the strap: Electrozero2
/ Primeline 2016 (SVQN100C).
An autograph session with riders
was held on Saturday (02-JUL), lots
of goodies were distributed.. Update 2: The
following four Touch Zero Two watches will be available
initially: 1. Electrozero2
(SVQN100); 2. Strawzero2
(SVQW100); 3. Nossazero2
(SVQN102A, Rio Olympics collection); 4. Veraozero2
(SVQN101, Rio Olympics collection). This
report (in German) has all the technical details about Touch
Zero Two. Update 3: A special page
about Touch Zero Two is now available on the official
Swatch website. Thanks to
Stefan Kluge for some pictures.
- Juls artist event in Singapore. On 09-JUN, an artist
event (press launch and invited club members) with Singapore artist Juls (Juliana Ong) was held at Swatch
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. She has designed the New Gent Juls At The Swatch Art Peace Hotel
(SUOZ217). She signed the sleeve
of the watch and more important: At the event, club
members could receive a small wall canvas art (signed and numbered at
xx/12) with the purchase of a first watch. A second watch would come
with a limited and numbered (xx/88) signed
artist print, packaged in a nice roll.
Here are a few
more pictures from the artist event with Juls. Update:
Juls has also signed a few
watches in Shanghai at the Art Peace Hotel. Thanks
to Edward Chung for the information and some
pictures and to Sophia Change for the picture.
- Destination London special. On 18-JUN, a special
Destination London New Gent 11h30am
(SUOZ231) has been launched during a club
event in London. It is only available in London and it is
packaged in a paper sleeve (similar to
the Brussels special).
- Ramadan collection. secondwatch.it
has discovered a Swatch Ramadan Seasons
Inspirations Collection consisting of 11
Swatch watches. This collection is only available in the
Middle East and other mainly Muslim countries (eg. Malaysia).
The Swatch store in the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) in Malaysia
has published a special video
featuring the Seasons Inspirations Swatch watches. The
"super bling-bling" Chrono One
Thousand And One (SVCK4084G) seems to be sold out already
in the Malaysia
online store. Here is a
picture of the actual watch.
- Dial variations. The new New Gent Chicken
Run (SUOW138) from the upcoming Archi-Mix
collection will be available with four different dials (collect them
all!): The coloured spot a 3
o'clock will be available in four different colours: Blue,
Green, Pink,
and Yellow. See the official
webpage for the pictures. Thanks to Kevo Thomson for the information and to Nicolo for the
picture.
- Mystery Vintage G&P special. At the Gold
& Pioneer Event 2016 in Interlaken, a special Mystery
Vintage Gold & Pioneer Event 2016 special packaging (SZS21 and four other ones) was sold to the
participants at the event (100 CHF for three
out of 14 possible watches).
Thanks to Sophia Chang for the
pictures.
- City specials. More
city specials have been released: 1. Greetings
From Vienna (GW705D); 2. Greetings
From Hong Kong (SUOB702Q); 3. Greetings
From Las Vegas (SUOB716C). All of these are previously
released watches with a special loop around the strap. Update:
Another red Greetings
From Hong Kong 2 (SUOZ232)
will be available in July.
- Hayek Engineering AG
specials. A few years ago, the Hayek Engineering AG (an
independent, international company which delivers counseling on
strategy, innovation and management, founded by Nicolas G. Hayek) has
released a Hayek
special: A Gent Sky Fly (GK347) with a Hayek imprint on the strap.
There is also a 50
Years Hayek Engineering AG special (SUOZ176S) which
looks almost identical to the New Gent This
Moment (SUOW106) from 2013. I assume that this 50
Years special was distributed in 2013. Update: There
is a third Swatch with the Hayek Engineering AG logo: A Gent Don't Be Too Late with the Hayek
logo on the strap. This is obviously the oldest of the
three Hayek specials.
- Destination Macau special. A special Irony Greetings
From Macau (YGS128C) is now
available in Macau. It is a James Bond special Le
Chiffre - Casino Royal (YGS128) with a special strap and a
Macau loop around the strap. The watch
is packaged in the well known Destination paper sleeve. Thanks
to German Santiago for the pictures.
- Destination Paris special. On 20-JUN, the remodeled
Paris Swatch Megastore on Champs Elysées opened its doors
again. A special New Gent Bisous De
Paris (SUOZ233) has been released which is currently
available only in the Megastore (soon in the other Swatch
stores). The watch is packaged in a paper
sleeve with special stickers. Price is 80 EURO (so the
usage of Manneken Pis on the Brussels Ketje
From Brussels special costs 10 EURO :-) Thanks
to Arnaud Perche for the information and
pictures.
- Bellamy Swiss launch. Swatch Bellamy,
the Swatch "pay-by-the-wrist" smart watch with a contactless payment
feature has now been launched
in Switzerland in a cooperation with Cornèrcard. Three
different Bellamy watches will be available in Switzerland in
mid-June: 1. Bellamy
Black CH (SVIB101-CH); 2. Bellamy White CH (SVIW102-CH);
3. Bellamy Blue
CH (SVIS100-CH). Each watch costs 105 CHF and has the VISA logo on a loop around the strap
(unlike the Chinese version). It comes packaged in a nice paper
sleeve (opened sleeve). Bellamy Black is also available
in China (except for the VISA logo), Bellamy
White CH is very similar to the Chinese version (no chinese
letters on the dial in Switzerland :-) and Bellamy
Blue CH is a completely new watch, not available in
China. After purchasing one of the three models at any Swatch
store, clients can sign up with the bank, pre-load the watch with
funds, and start shopping in Switzerland. According to this newspaper
report, users of the payment function of the watch have to pay
the following fees: 7 CHF one time fee for activation of the
watch and 3 CHF for each upload of money (the first upload is
free). Update: Swatch
Bellamy has been launched in Switzerland in June. Some
more restrictions are now known: You can use each watch for up
to three (two?)
years. Also you can upload up to 2,500 CHF per year, not
more. Both is due to "safety reasons". More information on
the official
Swatch homepage and here
and here.
- Tobias Rehberger artist special.
According to this interview
with Carlo Giordanetti (google
translation), the long
rumoured Tobias
Rehberger artist special will be launched soon
(probaly in June): Tobias Rehberger has designed the 24 Stops path between the
German city Weil am Rhein and Swiss city Riehen, between the Fondation Beyeler
and the Vitra
Campus. Update:
The special New
Gent Swatch Cuckoolus (SUOZ238S) was
launched during a Swatch
event on 12-JUN (about 45 Gold & Pioneer members
participated). Cuckoolus has two hands of the
same size, leaving the wearer to contemplate which of the two possible
times of day is most likely. Until 22-JUN, Cuckoolus
is exclusively available for purchase at the special
Swatch Store ("Cuckoolus Nest") at the border in Riehen between
Switzerland and Germany. The
special packaging of the watch makes
a cuckoo
bird sound when opened. The
watch
is limited and numbered to 4962 pcs and it will be available worldwide
starting 23-JUN. 4962 meters is the distance between the Fondation Beyeler and the Vitra Campus when you follow the
24 Stops path. Here
is a nice interview with Tobias Rehberger where he explains the
details of the Cuckoolus special. Update: Here
is a newspaper report about the event on the Swiss German
border. Update 2:
Here is a detailed report
about the 24 Stops #rehbergerweg event, with many pictures.
- Fall / Winter collection 2016/17. In the press section
of the official website, Swatch has published pictures of Proteam
members (Beach
Volleyball Major Series and Prime
Line) wearing a few watches from the upcoming Fall / Winter
collection 2016/17: 1. a colorful Street Art New
Gent (second picture);
2. a New Gent with a
tiger cute cat;
3. a white New Gent;
4. a SISTEM51.
- Juls Artist special. The
new Swatch catalogue for the Spring / Summer 2016 collections contains
an artist special by Singapore artist Yi Lin Juliana Ong
("Juls"): A
New Gent Juls At
The Swatch Art Peace Hotel (SUOZ217), packaged in a nice paper
sleeve. She probably designed it during her residency
at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in 2014/15. Previously,
Juls has painted
a unique Maxi Swatch in OCT-2015 for Swatch Loves Art – Best Time Ever
at the Harbour City Shopping Mall in Hong Kong. Update:
swatch.tv has a nice video
about Juls presenting
faces and figures inspired by the comic faces found on Chinese
artifacts on her Juls
At The Swatch Art Peace Hotel special. Update
2: Here
is a nice report about Juls and her Swatch. Did you know that
Juls is the first Singaporean to design a Swatch?
- Beach Volleyball Major Series 2016 special. For
the first stop of the Swatch
Beach Volleyball Major Series 2016 in Hamburg (07 to
12-JUN), a POP special Lovethisgame
(PNO100C, a POPover
(PNO100) POP with a special strap) has been released. I assume
that it is not very limited and that it will be available at all tour
stops. It is available in the Hamburg Swatch store and in the
Swatch Online Store.
- Gold & Pioneer Event / special
2016. The traditional Gold
& Pioneer Event took place from 26 to 29-MAY in the Berner
Oberland area (Lucerne, Interlaken) in Switzerland. A Test event was held a few weeks before on
the Cayman Islands :-) A stylish New Gent special My Own Swatch Club Star (SUOZ223S)
was distributed to the 126 Gold & Pioneer members who participated
at the event. The watch is limited and numbered to 200
pcs. It has a nice dark blue alcantara strap with two
loops GOLD&PIONEER 2016 and YOU'RE A STAR and it is packaged
in a numbered acryl tin with glow in the
dark stars. Here is an overview
of all the goodies that the collectors received (including a very nice
coffee table book (130 EURO!) Codice
Mendini about long term Swatch designer Alessandro
Mendini). Here is a detailed report about the Gold & Pioneer event in
Lucerne & Interlaken, with many pictures. Here
is the official event video by Swatch.
- Swatch POP at London Collections Men. Swatch is an
official sponsor of the London
Fashion Week. For the London
Collections Men 2016 (09 to 13-JUN), Swatch POP is
featured, including a Swatch booth at 180
Strand where guests to the event will be able to have their own
POP artistic moment for a unique fashion illustration.
- Mantova special. Mantova
is Capitale
Italiana della Cultura 2016. A special Swatch Fior Di Loto (GW705ES, a Gent Poppy Field
(GW705) from 2015 with a special strap) has been released. It
comes in a nice paper sleeve which is
numbered xxx/999 (as well as the watch on the back). secondwatch.it
has more
information and pictures
of the actual watch. Update 1: The numbered edition
is sold out by now. A second, unnumbered version is available
now in a different packaging (also
limited to 1000 pcs). Thanks to Jacky Beauverd for the pictures.
- Rio Olympics POP special.
A special Rio 2016
Olympics POP Poptabon
(PNZ100) will be launched soon, it is not limited and not numbered.
- Shareholder Assembly 2016 special. On 11-MAY, the
annual shareholder assembly of Swatch Group took place in
Grenchen at the Swiss
Velodrome. Each one of the 3275 participants received a
special New Gent Invented
Here (SUOZ237) as a present. The watch is
packaged in a nice paper sleeve.
The watch refers to the innovation strength of the Swatch Group.
Last year alone, Swatch Group filed more than 200 new patents. Here are a few
pictures from the annual shareholder assembly of Swatch Group and here
is a nice newspaper report about the assembly including a few more
nice pictures.
- New York Times Square store.
The iconic Swatch store at
Times Square, New York City, moved to a new location across
the street. Update:
After a "soft opening" in mid-March, the store was officially opened
with the New York City POP launch party on 03-MAY. Swatch
Creative director Carlo Giordanetti was present for the launch as well
as the young beauties Nina
Agdal (danish model), Chanel Iman (US model) and Olivia Culpo
(former Miss USA). fashionweekdaily.com
and teendaily.net
have more photos from the launch event in NYC. Great media
coverage for the new POP product line! Update
2: A benefit of the new Times Square location is that
the store and the electronic billboard are often seen on Good Morning America. The
billboard for the store frequently appears right
in between the two anchorpersons for the show. GMA is the most
popular national morning program in US, it broadcasts live seven days
a week from the second floor of a studio just one block from the new
Swatch store location. Thanks to
German Santiago for the pictures and to Brian Pier for the
information and picture.
- Ed Banger special. As
announced on the Swatch
website, Ed
Banger (Pedro Winter)
will go out on the 13th Anniversary Tour with the Swatch Club from
13-MAY to 31-MAR-2017. Ed Banger
Records was founded in 2003, and they have been making the world
dance to the sounds of Justice, Dj Mehdi, Breakbot, and Mr Oizo. A special
New Gent Swatch Ed
Banger Time (SUOB702R) will also be released on
02-MAY, it is designed by French artist Leslie David and it
is limited to 500 pcs. The colors
of this watch pays tribute to those of the Gent Coral
Gables (GB407) from 1988, the favourite Swatch of Pedro
Winter in his youth. The tour
starts on 13-MAY at the Mojo
club in Hamburg, Germany. Update:
colette.fr
has sold some signed
watches (the signed watches are sold out by now :-(
- Lisbon Rock in Rio special.
Rock
in Rio Lisboa takes place from 19 to 29-MAY in Lisboa,
Portugal. This huge festival features artists such as Bruce Springsteen & The E
Street Band (free Prince download!), Queen + Adam Lambert,
... Swatch is the official
watch of the Rock in Rio Lisboa: The Lisboa City Swatch is now available in a
special sleeve and a special
Rock in Rio loop at a 40m2 Swatch store in Rock
Street. Price is 70 EURO. Update:
Here
(scroll down!) you can find a packaging design for a proposed Swatch
special for Rock in Rio Madrid 2010. Does not look official to
me (even for a never realized special). Thanks
to Pedro Mota for the
information and to Alain Choisy
for the hint.
- Lindt specials.
Recently, two chocolate related specials have surfaced: 1. Lindt (a New Gent Indigo
Lacquered (SUON101) from 2012 with a special Lindt
imprint on the strap). This was possibly distributed in
the USA as a gift with purchase; 2. Lindt Irony (an Irony Chrono Dreambrown
(YCS526G) from 2010 with a special brown leather strap with Lindt
imprint. The watch is packaged in a brown Lindt paper
sleeve and it was distributed to employees of Lindt & Sprüngli in
Switzerland. By the way: You should become a shareholder
of Lindt
& Sprüngli: At the general assembly, you will get a suitcase
with about 4 kg of fine Lindt chocolate. Major
problem: One single Lindt
& Sprüngli share costs about 70.000
CHF! Update: According
to Alain Choisy, there are two versions of the first Lindt
Swatch: One with the Lindt logo on the
upper part (12 o'clock pos.) of the strap and one with the Lindt
logo on the lower part (6 o'clock pos.) of the strap.
- The force is strong... with
Swatch!
- Lowrider / Off Lain store
display. At the Jemoli
store in store in Zurich, Switzerland, Lowrider (Serge
Nidegger) has painted a large nice chalk
painting on the wall. Update:
On 30-APR, a new chalk
painting was created by Off
Lain. Swatch Switzerland has more pictures
from the event. Thanks to
Christine Tanner for the picture.
- Rocket Air 2016 Special.
On 29 and 30-APR, the biggest mountain bike slopestyle event in
Switzerland, Swatch
Rocket Air 2016, took place in Thun. As in the
last years, a special event Swatch was released: The Rocket Air 2016 special (SUOB704K) is a New Gent Dark Rebel (SUOB704) with a
special strap and a nice paper sleeve.
Limitation is 100 pcs (of which 85 pcs were sold at the event).
On 30-APR, Swiss Club members were invited to an Apero at the event,
Swatch Proteam member Sam
Pilgrin stopped by for an autograph
session. Upon purchase of the limited special watch, you
got a nice bag and a sticker
as a gift with purchase. Thanks to
Christine Tanner for the information
and pictures.
- EURO 2016 inspired Swatch. As
in previous years, Swatch will
release a soccer inspired Swatch watch for the UEFA EURO 2016 (10-JUN to
10-JUL). The watch is a New Gent special called Footballissime (SUOZ216). The watch
will be available in a limited special
packaging with 24 country loops (SUOZ216C, 125 EURO / 140 CHF,
ouch!) or individually (no special box) for 70 EURO / 75 CHF. A
part of the profit will be given to International Play
Association. Update:
The regular
and the special
watch is now promoted on the Swatch homepage.
The special
packaging is limited to 999 pcs (100 pcs for Italy). It is
not numbered. Additionally, the country loops are available
individually (2 CHF for one loop). Thanks to Alain Choisy for the additional info.
- Rio Olympics specials. You
can find a special Olympic
Spirit subpage on the official Swatch homepage about the four
Rio Olympics special Swatch watches.
- Return of the POP swatches. It
seems as if the POP swatches will return in 2016 (probably in May),
with a slightly modified watch case (note eg the position of the
crown): Pic
1 / Pic
2 / Pic
3.
Update:
secondwatch.it has much more details
about the individual POP models. Price will be 75 EURO, POPover (PNO100)
will cost 80 EURO. Update 2:
The Swiss Prelaunch of the
POP swatches will take place at the Sneakerness 2016
in Zurich on 16 and 17-APR. Some pictures from Sneakerness
Zurich: Swatch booth / POP
1 on display / POP 2 on
display / special
Sneakerness 2016 POP bag (designed by Lowrider).
Update 3: The
US launch of the POP swatches will take place on 03-MAY at the Times
Square store in New York: A
Night Of POP. Update
4: In Taiwan, the POP swatches were launched
on 28-APR. They are also now available in France and in
the Philippines.
Update 5: The
official Swatch website has a nice microsite
featuring the POP swatches, also reachable via www.pop.swatch. Soon,
several nice accessories for the POP swatch will be
available: colored neck chains,
a metal pocket chain, a table-clock
stand, a clip, and a wall
clock. Great! Thanks
to Christine Tanner for the information and
pictures.
- Brescia Swap Market. On
14-MAY, a swap market (free entry, free tables) will take place in
Brescia, Italy at the fablab, an open laborarory
for innovative ideas and projects. There will be some seminars
during the event. No special watch will be made for the
event. secondwatch.it has
more details. You
can register for the swap market here.
The last Italian swap market in Treviso
in NOV-2015 was great and a huge success.
- X-Men: Apocalypse special.
A special X-Men:
Apocalypse sleeve and loop is now available in the US (probably
US only) upon purchase of one out of nine qualifying New Gent watches.
Thanks to German Santiago for
the picture.
- Estelle Balet killed in avalanche.
Swatch Proteam member Estelle
Balet (World Champion
in 2015 and 2016 at the Freeride
World Tour) was killed in an avalanche on 19-APR after a slab of
snow broke away during a film shoot in Portalet near Orsières
(Switzerland). Sad news, Rest in Peace.
- Zurich City special.
A Zurich city special (GW164J) has been
launched on 14-APR. It is a Gent White
Bishop (GW164) from 2013 with two special loops and it is
packaged in a paper sleeve. Price is
65 CHF. Thanks to Christine
Tanner for the pictures.
- Sneakerness Zurich 2016
special. A special Sneakerness Zurich 2016 (SUOB720D,
a New Gent Mono Black (SUOB720) with a
special strap) has been released for the Sneakerness 2016
in Zurich on 16 and 17-APR, limitation is only 85 pcs. The watch
is packaged in a nice paper sleeve: front
/ back. In the evening of 16-APR,
Swatch
Up Your Night @ Sneakerness 2016 will take place at Club HW (Heile Welt) in
Zurich. Thanks to
Markus Jeanneret for the pictures.
- Strong Breeze variant. Here is a nice dummy variant
(dial) of the Irony Chrono Strong
Breeze (YCS4025AG) from 2003.
- Swatch Kick The Mix contest.
Swatch is looking for the new DJ
star from Austria during a contest called Kick
The Mix. The Swatch
up your Night Kick Off party takes place on 17-MAR in
Vienna. DJs include Möwe,
Rudy MC & 2:tages:bart.
Update: Here
is more information about the contest.
- Second Mona Lisa special. The
second Mona Lisa Paris special is a Gent called Mona Masquée (GZ301). It was launched on
14-APR at the Swatch Store in the Louvre in Paris and it is exclusive
to this store for the next three months. The watch is packaged
in a nice paper sleeve. About 30 Gold
& Pioneer members participated at the launch event, including a
day full of activities in Paris (2CV driving etc.). Thanks
to Hetto Dijkstra and Sascha Stawinski for
the pictures.
- Paris city specials. A
Paris city special (GW164F)
has been launched on the day of the Mona
Masquée launch (14-APR). It is a Gent White
Bishop (GW164) from 2013 with one (two?) special loops. In
July, a real destination watch (similar to the Brussels Destination
special Ketje
From Brussels) with a unique design will follow.
Thanks to Sascha Stawinski for
the pictures.
- Haring discoloration. Hans van Buuren
has taken a spectacular photo of two broken
/ disassembled Keith Haring Swatch watches (Milles
Pattes) which nicely shows the discoloration of the watches
during the years. Check out the original colour of the watch
inside of the battery case.
- Alessandro Mendini special. Almost
25 years after designing the best Club watch ever (Lots of Dots), Italian designer Alessandro Mendini has
created a new art special: The New Gent Spot The Dot (SUOZ213) has been created to
commemorate the exceptional exhibition opening this fall in Korea: Alessandro
Mendini - The Poetry of Design. The exhibition runs from
08-OCT through 28-FEB-2016 at the Dongdaemun
Design Plaza in Seoul. The watch comes packaged in a
nice paper sleeve. Initially, the
watch will only be available in Korea at The
Poetry of Design exhibition venue and in the Swatch stores
in Korea. After the exhibition, the watch will be available
worldwide. Update: On
12-APR, a signing session with Alessandro Mendini took place at the
Via Montenapoleone Swatch store in Milano. secondwatch.it
has a lot of pictures. More pictures at swatch.com.
- Gold Member Welcome Experience.
The list of Swatch
Club Benefits includes one new special event: The Gold
Member Welcome Experience. New Gold Members are invited
to join a training session to discover the beautiful world of Swiss
made watches at the ETA training centre. Fantastic!
- Collector Card. The
list of Swatch
Club Benefits includes one more new item: The Collector Card.
A similar campaign was available in some countries (Austria) many
years ago. The Welcome package for the current club watch will
include a collector card pre-filled with one sticker. Swatch
collectors can obtain the missing stickers by purchasing additional
watches in selected
Swatch stores. With a completed Collector Card, you will
receive a special loop set randomly selected between two different
possible loop sets.
- 1985 Japan sponsorship. In
1985, Swatch was a sponsor of the Japan tour of Huey Lewis and the News.
Check out pictures of the tour poster
and the tour program in
the page of old Swatch ads (scroll down!).
- Club watch 2016/2017. The
Club watch for 2016/17 is called Silverscape (SUOZ215) and it
was launched
on 03-MAR during an
international event in Hong Kong together with a special limited
and numbered edition called Stargaze
(limited to 999 pcs, SUOZ214DS)
inclusive of Hong Kong city loop
(similar to Tokyo last year). The limited edition Stargaze is packaged in a
metal tin containing the watch and a star shaped pin as announced
since a few weeks on Facebook
Swatch Hong Kong. Further launch events will take place in
Taipei (05-MAR, SUOZ214CS), New
York City and Brussels (10-MAR), Cascais (Portugal) and Montreal
(Canada) on 12-MAR, Paris (15-MAR), Geneva
(Switzerland) on 17-MAR, London on 18-MAR, Milano on 19-MAR, and
Frankfurt on 24-MAR.
(SUOZ214KS). Update:
It seems as if the HK launch event was a lot of fun, it
included a Skywalk
and a real,
stylish chinese dinner. (New) Gold member Sophia Chang has
a great photo
album from the HK launch event. Update
2: The watch from every launch city has a special city loop
(of course) but also its unique ref. code:
Taiwan is SUOZ214CS
(4550TWD, ~127 EURO) and Hong Kong is SUOZ214DS (1160 HKD, ~136
EURO). So the price for the very limited club launch special was
increased significantly (the regular club watch costs 90 EURO):
Last year, the price for the regular This Is My World (SUOZ195)
was identical to the limited This
Is My Collectors World (SUOZ202S, 888 pcs), for example 100 CHF
in Switzerland. A clever move as the limited edition will sell
out anyway (but someone has to pay for the launch events :-) At
the launch event in Taiwan (05-MAR), premium club members received a
special Star
Master packaging. Update
3: In total, there are 10 cities with special loops for
the launch. Additionally, there are seven(?) further launch
cities (including Brussels) with no
special loop where a 'regular' Stargaze (SUOZ214S)
is sold (130 EURO in Brussels). Update
4: Here is a small
report by Christine Tanner about the launch event in Geneva on 17-MAR.
Update 5:
Here is a report from the nice evening in
Frankfurt with a few pictures. Thanks
to Markus Jeanneret and to Sophia Chang for
the pictures.
- Swatch designer Andrea
Arrigoni. Andrea
Arragoni is an Italian designer who has worked at Swatch Lab
Milano for many many years (since the early 90s). He has
designed more than 400(!!)
Swatch watches, his latest watches were released in 2014.
He has created many of the more "regular" watches from the Gent,
Scuba, Irony ... collection but also quite a few specials
including the Xmas specials Roi Soleil, Magic
Spell, ... and also quite a few of the James
Bond watches, the Club watch Lots
Of Swatch and many many more. He was present at the launch
of the new club watch at the Museo
della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milano on
19-MAR and he helped to design a large
painting at the launch. secondwatch.it
has a nice report about Andrea
Arragoni and the launch of the new club watch. Check it
out and you should also visit the website of Andrea Arragoni in order
to see his huge Swatch portfolio.
- Swatch Museum. The
planned Swatch Museum and the headquarters
for Omega and Swatch (timber buildings by Japanese architect
Shigeru Ban) are currently under construction in Biel. According
to this recent report titled "The
snake is growing", the Swatch museum will open its doors in
2018.
- Swatch The Eyes sunglasses. According
to this newspaper
report (JUN-2015), Swatch plans to sell Swatch branded
sunglasses "before the summer holidays". The sunglasses will be
called Swatch The Eyes.
Could this
be the design of the new Swatch
The
Eyes sunglasses (by Kike
Belmonte from Spain)? This is the third time
that Swatch sells sunglasses: Previously, they did it in
the 80s (extremely cool! Together with Alpina Eyewear) and in
the 90s (also very cool). Update:
It took a bit longer than expected and the new
Swatch The Eyes design
looks very similar to the design from the 90s: Swatch
and the Italian
eyewear creator Safilo sign
a five year contract. The two companies will co-design
eyewear collections while Safilo will develop and manufacture the
eyewear. The first Swatch The
Eyes collection will be launched in spring (March?). Update 2: Swatch The Eyes has been
launched on 15-MAR in Paris. A huge Swatch The Eyes billboard
has been unveiled at the Place de
la Concorde in Paris. Here
is a picture of the actual sunglasses in the Paris Swatch store.
The sunglasses cost between 75 CHF/EURO (most of the sunglasses) and
110 CHF/EURO (one model). Here
is more information about Swatch
The Eyes (in German). Update
3: Here
is a funny picture of Nick Hayek and Simonetta
Sommaruga (Swiss politician) at Baselworld which just opened
the doors. You can browse the complete first Swatch The Eyes collection
on the Swatch website now. Thanks to Swatch and Christine Servian for the pictures and to
Alain Choisy for the information.
- Nick Hayek at CeBIT. CeBIT
is a "Global Event for Digital Business" (back in the 80s, I spent a
week there working at the Atari
booth :-). Switzerland
is the CeBIT
2016 Partner Country. So it was only natural that Swatch
CEO Nick Hayek was a keynote speaker at the opening
night. A few pictures from the keynote show a very
well known flag :-) Update:
Here
is an interesting interview with Nick Hayek at CeBIT.
- Arte Laguna Prize. Swatch
is a sponsor of the 10th Arte
Laguna Prize, an international art award, aimed at enhancing
Contemporary Art. A special prize at this contest is a
three-to-six-month stay at The
Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. More details on a
special Arte Laguna Prize page on
the Swatch website.
- Brussels Destination watch. On
10-MAR, a new special Destination Swatch
was launched in the beautiful new Swatch Megastore next to the
historic Grand-Place,
dedicated to the city of Brussels. The watch is a New Gent
called Ketje
From Brussels (SUOZ712), it
features the well known Manneken
Pis, the colors on the dial change on a daily basis and once a
week, the colors of the flag
of Belgium are visible. The watch is packaged in a nice paper sleeve, the price is 90 EURO
(ouch!). In the Brussels dialect, "Ketje" means "child" or
"boy", especially "street boy". "Brussels ketje" is a also
nickname for a real Brussels native. Update:
A dutch Tintin (Kuifje) comic book called Een Brussels Ketje also
exists, however, it is apparently out of print. Update
2: The Brussels watch is the first in a series of Destination Swatch watches with
Paris, Milano, London, New York, and Hong Kong to follow. During
the launch day, Swatch had invited 20 Gold & Pioneer Club members
for a nice city tour including a chocolate workshop and beer
tasting. Here is an
overview of the goodies that the G&P members received / bought
during the day. Here
is a report from the nice day in Brussels
with a lot of pictures. Thanks to Alain Choisy for the update.
- Swatch Talk. In the
last millenium (1999), rumours
of a Swatch wristphone surfaced. It never materialized on
the market, however. It turns out that a design for Swatch
Talk exists, it was
created by Jozeph
Forakis, see his Swatch project
page. Here
is another picture and here
is a design sketch. Looking closer at the pictures, it might
also be an alternative design to the long forgotten Swatch pager. Thanks to Laurent Stefani for the
hint.
- Irony Scuba 200 designer.
Do you know who designed the Irony Scuba 200 (produced from 1998 to
2003)? It was Jozeph
Forakis as well. He also designed two different packagings
for the Irony Scuba 200 which never were available commercially:
packaging
1 / packaging
2. Thanks to
Laurent Stefani for the hint.
- 10 things. ...you
definitely didn't
know about Swatch watches.
- Lookseasy
design study. A detailed
design study for the much sought after Joana Vasconcelos Swatch
Lookseasy
is now available. The current page says "published 05-FEB-2016"
but I had seen it several months (APR-2015!) before
the release of the watch last November (without the pictures
of the actual watch). It was taken down back then, probably at
the request of you know who. To me, it looks like "the real
thing", not like just another students
work.
- Chrono Plastic production error
(never fixed?). Did you notice that the Chrono Plastic
Roud Of Hump
(SUIK404, 2009) has an error on the dial? The 30 and the 45 on
the lower little dial are swapped. Does a corrected version
exist? Is the name a typo as well? Could it be Round
Of Hump? Questions, questions, .... Update: Alain Choisy sent
me a picture of a Round
Of Hump with correct dial. Does anyone have a
photo of the watch with correct dial?
- Swatch Group collaborates with
Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne. Nick Hayek, CEO of
Swatch group, announced a long term collaboration with the Bürgenstock
Resort during a press
conference on 25-FEB at the upcoming Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne.
Swatch Group will be represented in the entire resort with its 18
watch brands. The brands will feature in five watch and jewelry stores
with a total area of 670 square meters. The new Bürgenstock
Resort will open in mid-2017. The Swatch Group will also be
providing the Bürgenstock Resort with works of art, which were created
by international artists as part of the Artist
Residency at the Swatch
Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai.
- Lillehammer Winter Youth Olympic
Games 2016 special. For the Winter Youth Olympic Games
in Lillehammer, Norway (12 to 21-FEB-2016), a special Swatch has been
released: Youth
Olympic Games 2016. It is a Gent Intense
Blue (GS144) with a special strap and a special paper
sleeve. I assume that it was given to the
volunteers. Update: Several
similar
specials (different colours) exist.
- Relaunch of secondwatch.it. The
best Italian blog about Swatch watches has been relaunched, check it
out here: www.secondwatch.it
Although it was very nice in the past, it is even better now!
Congrats, Filippo!
- swatchleaks! Check
out swatchleaks.org :-)
- El Corte Inglés anniversary
special. El
Corte Inglés is the biggest department store group in Europe
(mainly operating in Spain, the only department store chain remaining
there). For the 75th anniversary of
El
Corte Inglés (in 2015 [or 2016?]), a special New Gent Swatch Setentaycinco
(SUOW100E) has been (will be?) released.
- swatch.club Have you
ever tried to click on http://swatch.club?
Cool.
- Swatch "pay-by-the-wrist" smart
watch. After launching the first smart watch in August
(Touch Zero One), Swatch is now
launching a second smart watch called Swatch Bellamy
with a contactless payment feature. The first collection
consisting of four watches was
presented during a press conference
with Nick Hayek on 14-OCT at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel
in Shanghai, China: 1. Bellamy
Black (SVIB101); 2. Bellamy
Red (SVIR100); 3. Bellamy
White (SVIW106); 4. Bellamy White Blue
(SVIN100). The watch costs 580 CNY (about $91 US).
Starting in January 2016, customers in China can use their watches to
pay for purchases in shops and stores around the country. To
achieve this, Swatch has partnered with UnionPay (bigger than Visa and
MasterCard combined in China; the world's 2nd largest company
after Visa in terms of transactions) and Bank of Communications. The
watches have built-in NFC (Near Field Communication) technology,
allowing people to contactlessly "pay-by-the-wrist".
Additionally, Swatch Bellamy will "soon" be launched in Switzerland
with a Swiss bank and secure transaction partner, as well as in the
USA. The rumoured smart watch for snowboarder / skiing is pushed
back to winter 2016/17. Update: According to this
press
release, the German company Giesecke
& Devrient (G&D) is the provider of the embedded smart
card chip in the watch. Update
2: According to press
reports, Swatch has signed an agreement with the credit card
company Visa
regarding the payment watch for the world (except China), including
USA and Switzerland. Update
3: Here
is the formal announcement of the Swatch / Visa Collaboration.
Swatch Bellamy, in collaboration with Visa, is scheduled to be
initially available in early 2016 in the U.S., Switzerland, and Brazil
(these are the countries covered by the agreement). Update
4: The Swatch
Bellamy watches are now available in China. Sophia Chang
has published a few photos: four
watches / closeup
/ packaging
/ back
of packaging. The ref.no. has a "-CN" at the end (eg.
SVIB101-CN) so I assume that the electronics are somewhat country
specific (ie. the payment function of these watches will probably work
only in China, not in Switzerland when this will be activated later in
2016 in Switzerland).
- SISTEM51 production video. The
German TV channel Kabel eins has
produced a 15 minutes video report Luxury watch vs. cheap watch
with lots of pictures from the SISTEM51
production in Boncourt, Jura, Switzerland.
- Burkhalter Access special. For
the 40th anniversary of the Swiss Electrical Engineering company Burkhalter in 1999, a
special access Swatch 40
years Burkhalter (a Clearance
access (SKK103) with a special strap) has been released.
- Maison Blanche special. For
the 25th anniversary of the Paris restaurant Maison Blanche in 2015, a
special Swatch Maison
Blanche (a Gent White
Bishop (GW164) from 2013 with a special
loop around the strap) has been issued
by the restaurant.
- Spring / Summer 2016 collection. Dino has
found a preview
of the Swatch Spring / Summer
2016 collection. Themes are (larger pictures!) Africana,
Beach
Swing, Floralia,
Metallix,
Es
war einmal ("once upon a time"), Power
Tracking. There will also be new SISTEM51
and XLite
watches. Update: Meanwhile,
the 2016
watches can be found on the official Swatch webpage, also a
special page for the Power
Tracking collection and Es war einmal. Update 2: You can browse
and download the digital catalogue
for the Spring
/ Summer 2016 I Always Want More
collection.
- 20 years Triathlon Lausanne
special. A special Swatch 20 Ans Triathlon Lausanne 2014
(YCS457F) was released in
AUG-2014.
- Hits & Hots boxes. Swatch
Germany is selling the Black
Friday mystery boxes in a new packaging called Hits & Hots (strange name).
Apparently, there are some leftovers... Price for the box is 30
EURO (but you have to buy another watch if you want one). The Hits & Hots boxes are also available online
(check it out for a list of the watches!).
- Jovanotti special. Very
soon (end of November), Swatch will release a special New Gent Swatch
watch Jovatime designed by
Italian singer-songwriter Jovanotti.
The watch will be available in two different(?) packagings: Jovatime (SUOZ220)
will be unlimited and it will cost 70 EURO, Jovatime (Numbered) (SUOZ220S)
will be limited to 3333 pcs and it will cost 105 EURO. Here
is a picture of the opened special packaging. At the Swatch Club
Xmas event in Venice, one of the watches (I assume the unlimited one)
was given away in a lottery: The colourful Jovanotti Swatch comes in a
colourful paper sleeve with a yellow
backside. The watch is packaged in a yellow
plastic box (a first!). The lucky winner of the lottery
received a great gift additionally: A prototype leather
packaging for the watch which was scrapped at last minute.
Swatch is running a contest at jovatime.swatch.it:
If you buy a Jova Time Swatch
watch and take a selfie with this Swatch, you can win 2 tickets for
one of his concerts in Milano, Torino, Bologna, ... in
2015/2016. Even better: 12 additional lucky contest winners will
"meet & greet" Jovanotti at his concert in Milano on
09-JAN-2016. Here
is a press report about the watch with Jovanotti
designing at his desk. Update:
Alain Choisy just sent me photos of three different paper
sleeves of the regular edition (buyer can choose!): sleeve
1 / sleeve 2 / sleeve
3. Update: The
unnumbered Jovatime watch (SUOZ220) seems to be available worldwide
(at least in Germany) but I still assume that Jovatime (Numbered) (SUOZ220S)
will only be available in Italy. Update
2: The limited numbered version in the special
packaging is available at the current
concerts of Jovanotti. Update
3: Meanwhile, the limited numbered edition is
available in many countries: China, Hong
Kong and Malaysia. And also in the international Swatch online
stores. Thanks to
Sophia Chang for the update.
- Prototypes from the mid 90s?
Sevenfold
created the store design for the former New York Timeship
Swatch store. On the information
page about this project, you can see three interesting Swatch
watches: Asphalt
(prototype?), Rising
Sun (prototype?) and Rising
Sun 2 (looks like a prototype variant of the Gent Movie News (GK219) from
1996). Does anyone have more information about these watches?
- Stripp NYC Timeship store launch
special. A rare packaging variant of the quite common
Scuba special Stripp
(SDN120) is the Stripp
New York Timeship store launch special. The
launch took place on 09-DEC-1996 at the former Timeship
Swatch store on 5 East 57th Street in NYC. The
Timeship store is closed since many years now. A "Special
Edition" Stripp Timeship T-shirt was available only at the
Swatch Timeship launch party according to the print on the back of the
box. The watch also comes with an extra special Timeship
outfit.
Andreas Wiethoff