Swatch watches

Swatch presented its first collection of twelve models on 1 March 1983 in Zurich. The watch was developed at ETA under Ernst Thomke by the engineers Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller, in response to the competition from quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s. They reduced the movement to 51 components and used plastic cases sealed by ultrasonic welding. Nicolas G. Hayek, asked by Swiss banks to oversee the liquidation of the watch groups ASUAG and SSIH, restructured them instead; in 1985 he and a group of Swiss investors took a majority shareholding in the merged group, SMH. Swatch is a brand of the Swatch Group.

In 2013 Swatch introduced the Sistem51, a mechanical automatic movement with 51 parts and fully automated assembly. In 2022 it launched the MoonSwatch in collaboration with Omega, using its Bioceramic material.