The ways trends come in go in the fashion world and it is very difficult to know what the latest one will be and how much of an impact it will have on consumer culture. It’s all about being at the right place at the right time and many marketing consultants try their best to time their latest ideas to see if they will do well with the population at large. You have to strike hard when a trend becomes popular if you are a manufacturer or designer as you must benefit as much as possible in case the trends quickly dies. The key is sustainability like is seen in the diamond jewelry industry and many hope that their trends last long amounts of time. Many fashions and designs that seem like trends are still around to this day and are still very popular amongst small groups of people rather than the society at large. In many ways, this sustainability is better than a flash in the pan trend. If you can swing both, then all the better, as you will have the quick cash from the popularity of your product and the long-term growth of a sustainable product. Such is the case of Swatch watches. They have gone through a brief popular phase in the 1980’s and have continued to do well throughout the world after their brief moment in the spotlight.
Swatch watches were created in the 1980’s to try to save the Swiss watch industry. Strong competition from Japanese watch makers was costing the Swiss makers money and they needed to breathe life into their designs to recapture market share from their Japanese competitors. The youth market was something that they had no luck with in the past and they hired Nicolas Hayek to come up with a new idea for a watch that would light up Swiss watch sales and save the industry so that they could continue to make high-end products for connoisseurs. Around this time, fashion was evolving and Swiss watches were too expensive and their designs were far from cutting-edge. Nicolas Hayek created the Swatch watch to create buzz and bring back the innovation that the Swiss were known for at a low price point.
Nicolas Hayek was born in Lebanon and was a business consultant who was originally slated to liquidate the industry players, but ended up merging two of the more prominent companies and bought the newly formed conglomeration. This new company released the first Swatch watches in 1983 and was a huge success from the get-go. Nicolas was seen wearing his product, even multiple watches at the same time in public, a true testament to his belief in the product. Mr. Hayek died, on June 29th at the age of 82, a great visionary who single-handedly saved the Swiss watch industry with a few silly designs and a wonderful price point that allowed many to afford a high-quality fashion watch that was at the height of style at the time. He will be missed, but never forgotten as time goes on.