The Swatch Group

SSIH (Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère), originated in 1930 with the merger of the Omega and Tissot companies. Swiss watch quality was high, but new technology, such as the Hamilton Electric watch introduced in 1957 and the Bulova Accutron tuning fork watch in 1961, presaged increasing technological competition.

In the late 1970s, SSIH became insolvent due in part to a recession and in part to heavy competition from inexpensive Asian-made quartz crystal watches. These difficulties occurred even though it had become Switzerland's largest, and the world's third largest, producer of watches. Its creditor banks assumed control in 1981.

ASUAG (Société Générale de l'Horlogerie Suisse SA), formed in 1931, was the world's largest producer of watch movements and the parts thereof (balance wheels, balance springs (spiral), assortments, watch stones ("rubis"). ASUAG had also integrated an array of watch brands in 1972 into a sub-holding company, General Watch Co. ASUAG failed similarly in 1982.

The Swatch Group was formed in 1983 as ASUAG/SSIH from the two financially troubled predecessor companies, ASUAG and SSIH.[7][8] Taken private in 1985 by then-CEO Nicolas Hayek, with the understanding of the Swiss banks and the financial assistance of a group of Swiss private investors (in particular Stephan Schmidheiny and Esther Grether), it was renamed SMH (Société de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie) in 1986, and ultimately Swatch Group Ltd in 1998.[7]

The launch of the new "Swatch" brand of watch in 1983, by the then ETA SA CEO Ernst Thomke and his young team of engineers, was marked by bold new styling and design. The quartz watch was redesigned for manufacturing efficiency and fewer parts. This combination of marketing and manufacturing expertise restored Switzerland as a major player in the world wristwatch market.

Swatch subsidiary ETA SA, which is based in Grenchen, Switzerland, furnishes many OEM brands, such as LVMH (which markets TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith watch lines) and Richemont (which markets amongst others, Baume & Mercier, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Piaget SA and Vacheron Constantin).[14]

The Swatch Group Electronic System includes:

• Belenos Clean Power AG.[15]
• EM Microelectronic-Marin: Designs and produces ultra-low power, low voltage mixed-signal integrated circuits, LCD and modules. IC Product lines include RFID, microcontroller, smart card, ASIC, RTC, reset circuit, watchdog, LCD driver, opto ICs.
• Micro Crystal: produces miniature low power quartz crystals and small low power oscillators.
• Renata: develops and produces micro batteries. Product lines include button cells and rechargeable (Lithium Polymer) batteries.

In 1998, Swatch invented "Swatch Internet Time", intended as a global time system, which divides the day into 1000 "beats" in a single worldwide time zone.[16]

In October 2004, Swatch introduced its first smart watch, the Paparazzi, based on Microsoft Corporation's SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology.)

The Swatch Group started offering their first class in the Nicolas G. Hayek Watchmaking School for aspiring watchmakers in September 2005, and this school is located in Miami, Florida, USA. Other watchmaker schools situated in Glashütte, Germany; Okmulgee, USA; Pforzheim, Germany; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Shanghai, China.

Swiss Timing, under brands such as Omega, Longines, and Tissot, provide timing services for sporting events such as Formula One, Olympic Games, Tour de France, and Equestrian events.[17] In 2018, it was announced that The Swatch Group will be holding its own watch fair in Zurich, during Baselworld 2019.[18]

In 1994, Swatch entered into a joint venture with Germany's Daimler AG to produce the Smart car, but they later withdrew from this project.[19]

Swatch subsidiary Belenos Clean Power AG entered into a joint venture with the Paul Scherrer Institut in May 2008 to develop a hydrogen fuel cell for a fuel cell powered car.[20] Swatch began test drives of the car in Switzerland in 2012. However, the Swatch Group decided to abandon the project for a fuel cell powered car in June 2015 and concentrate instead on a new type of battery with high storage capacity.[21]