Swatch

Swatch was launched on 1 March 1983 in Zürich by ETA SA, the movement maker within the ASUAG-SSIH group, as a Swiss answer to inexpensive Japanese quartz watches during the quartz crisis. Its engineers Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller, working under ETA chief Ernst Thomke, designed a plastic watch of 51 components in which the case back doubled as the movement's baseplate, allowing fully automated assembly. Nicolas G. Hayek, whose consultancy had recommended the strategy, took control of the group in 1985 and later renamed it The Swatch Group.

The brand turned watches into seasonal, collectable design objects, working with artists such as Keith Haring and producing thousands of references. In 2013 it introduced the Sistem51, a mechanical automatic movement of 51 parts assembled entirely by machine, and in 2022 the MoonSwatch, a Bioceramic collaboration with Omega based on the Speedmaster Moonwatch. Swatch remains a subsidiary of The Swatch Group, headquartered in Biel/Bienne, and the group's entry-level brand.