The Swatch Group

Summary

The Swatch Group Ltd is an international group active in the manufacture and sale of finished watches, jewellery, watch movements and components. It supplies nearly all components required for the watches sold by its watch and jewellery brands as well as by its two retail brands, Tourbillon and Hour Passion. The Group’s production companies also supply movements and components to third-party watchmakers. The Swatch Group Ltd is also a key player in the manufacture and sale of electronic systems used in watchmaking and other industries.

History

In 1983, troubled Swiss watchmakers ASUAG and SSIH merged into holding group SMH, orchestrated by Nicolas G. Hayek. It was renamed The Swatch Group in 1998.

A bit about the history of both watchmakers before the merger… SSIH was formed in 1930 with the merger of Omega and Tissot. ASUAG, founded in 1931, was the biggest Swiss Watch Industry Group created with the help of the Swiss Government and Swiss Banks to maintain, upgrade and grow the Swiss watch industry. In the thirties, both ASUAG and SSIH were not doing good business because of the serious economic crisis.

Following frequent crises in the Swiss watch industry, by the Seventies ASUAG and SSIH were in financial trouble and facing tough competition from the formidable Japanese watch industry, with its mass production. Eventually, both ASUAG and SSIH faced liquidation. At this point, Nicolas G. Hayek, CEO of his own management consulting firm Hayek Engineering, received an assignment to develop a plan for the survival of both companies.

In 1983, The Hayek Study recommended several measures including the merger of ASUAG and SSIH and the launch of a low-cost, high-tech, artistic watch — Swatch. The subsequent execution of the proposal, the takeover of a majority of shares by Hayek Pool and the nomination of Nicolas G. Hayek as CEO of the holding group, made it the most valuable watchmaker worldwide.

Under Hayek’s leadership, the group launched and developed Swatch in 1983 as a response to the “quartz crisis” in which inexpensive Japanese-made digital watches were giving European-made mechanical watches tough competition. The group also drove the continuous development and improvement of all brands. In 1998, SMH was renamed The Swatch Group. There was no looking back. The group struck a licensing deal with Tiffany in 2007.

Hayek’s achievements have been widely recognized and he was named Officier de la Légion d’Honneur de France. Following his death in 2010, his daughter Nayla Hayek became Chair and son Nick Hayek, CEO. Today, The Swatch Group is a diversified multinational holding company that is active in the manufacture and sale of watches, jewellery, watch movements and components. It owns the Swatch product line and other brands including ETA, Blancpain, Breguet, Glashütte Original, Harry Winston, Omega, Longines, Tissot, Hamilton and Rado.

Sports timing and measurement technologies, though not a core business, is critical to visibility and reach; several Swatch Group brands are official timekeepers at sports events, including the Olympic Games. Per a message from the CEO on the official website: “The Group, which files a new patent every two days on average, is also the only company in the world that is present in every market segment with a mass-market product: from the very top of the range to children’s watches… This leadership position and its accompanying success allow us to explore new avenues: jewelry, the world of art, in which we have participated for almost thirty years, and the world of technical innovations that enable us to continue investing in projects that are concerned with the future of our planet.”

Leadership Team

Chairman Nayla Hayek | CEO Nick Hayek, Jr.

Products and Services

Swatch Group, above all, is a watchmaking business, acclaimed as the world’s largest from the standpoint of the number of finished watches. This creative wealth is expressed through seventeen brands which not only cover all price segments, but which also correspond to all the desires and tastes of a global public of diverse consumers.

Recognition and Awards

Whether it is movements, hands, crowns, cases, screws, pallets, escapements, electronic circuits, batteries, ceramics and sapphire, The Swatch Group is recognised for producing everything in-house by its employees in its own factories, workshops and laboratories.

Vision

The Swatch Group is a fantastic industrial production machine in Switzerland, using the most advanced robotics and cutting-edge technologies to give results of the highest precision needed for its products. But it is also a business where craftsmanship has its place, in Vallée de Joux workshops, where mechanical movements are handmade and where rare exceptional professional skills are taught and the know-how protected.

Mission

The Swatch Group is the world’s leading producer of finished watches. The company is also a fully vertical company in the field of watch production, manufacturing all the elements necessary for the production of mechanical and quartz watches. It is an enterprise that allows the core team to create, produce, and distribute seventeen watch brands’ products independently.

• Official website
• The best Swatch watches of all time GQ
• Youtube page of The Swatch Group Youtube
• Swatch Group Returns to Profit, Sees Strong Sales Ahead BoF
• Twitter page of The Swatch Group Twitter
• Swatch’s New Blockbuster Collaboration Is Here GQ
• Instagram page of The Swatch Group Instagram
• Swatch Sets New Half-Year Sales Record Citing Lifting of Covid Curbs BoF
• Legion of honour Wikipedia
• Swatch x Blancpain GQ
• Swatch Group Raises Prices For Omega SpeedMaster Watches BoF
• Will the luxury watches boom continue? Vogue
• LinkedIn page of The Swatch Group LinkedIn
• Swiss watches are in for a rough 2019 Vogue
• Swatch Group Looking to Brighter 2021 BoF
• The Swatch Group: A Family Business That Saved a National Industry Tharawat
• Nicolas Hayek Forbes
• Swatch Group Brands Quit Baselworld Forbes
• Swatch Group Reverses Course and Suspends Sales in Russia BoF