Swatch
Swatch's headquarters in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Watchmaking |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Headquarters | , Switzerland |
Key people | Nick Hayek Jr. (chairman, president) |
| Products | Wristwatches |
| Parent | The Swatch Group |
| Subsidiaries | Flik Flak |
| Website | swatch.com |
Swatch is a Swiss watch company founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which inexpensive, battery-powered, quartz-regulated watches were competing against more established European watchmakers focused on artisanal craftsmanship producing mostly mechanical watches.
The name Swatch is a contraction of "second watch," its concept of "low-cost, high-tech, artistic and emotional" watches marketed as casual, disposable accessories.