Getting Americans to crave another watch or two should be just a matter of technique. However, Italians own between four and five watches apiece, and the Swiss between three and four. Marketing naifs might assume from those figures that the US watch market is saturated. In fact, Imgruth calculates that on a per-capita basis, each American owns a wardrobe of two to three watches.ĪLSO SEE: 284+ retro women’s shoes from the ’80s More than half of all watches are purchased as gifts, and the four months from September through December account for 60 percent of sales. Americans shelled out $2 billion for 65 million watches in 1982, and estimates are that they bought another 70 million in 1983. In this country, 75 percent cost under $75. Worldwide, some 310 million watches are sold annually, adding up to a $7 billion business. the line will include 26 styles in five categories: Skipper, Waikiki Surf, Memphis, High-Tech, and Meet Me at the Carlyle. The $19.95 model was its sixth-biggest seller and has been cut from the new spring-summer line.ĭue out in March and priced at $25 to $35. Swatch’s best seller last year was a $29.95 black model with white hands, a red second hand, an inner circle numbering the seconds, and a calendar. More wrists sport watches with black faces than any other color by far, but in Europe, gray, navy, and tan are also hot sellers, and in the States, red is popular. YES, THEY ARE STILL AROUND: See the current models available now! We think that soon, if not already, people won’t be saying ‘Gee, my watch isn’t functioning I’ve got to get a new one,’ but rather ‘Gee, that color looks good I’ll get it for sailing, playing tennis, or to go with an outfit.'” “We don’t think of it as a timepiece as much as a design piece. “Swatch is not so much in the watch business as in the fashion-sports-and-accessories business,” says Max Imgruth, president of the Swiss Watch Distribution Center Swatch Watch, U.S.A., Inc. MORE: Digital watches: The hot tech trend of the ’70s & ’80s Swatch is there, too, alongside the Patek Philippes, Audemars Piguets, Vacheron & Constantins, and Piagets.īut because it is also being marketed as a fashion item, it is prominent in chic boutiques, the accessories departments of large stores, and sporting-goods shops as well. Most quality watches - and Swatch is being presented as a low-cost quality watch - are sold primarily through jewelry stores. The price certainly fills the bill: While Rolex’s eighteen-karat-gold President goes for $7,950 and the Piaget Polo $12,900, Swatch’s first line of 25 models sells for $19.95 to $37.50, depending on whether you want, say, a second hand, a calendar, or whatever.Įach is made of durable plastic, is water- and shock-resistant, has a battery that lasts three years instead of the usual one, and is practically indestructible. Swatch (short for “Swiss watch” ), an up-to-the-minute quartz marvel introduced last year with bold colors and zappy graphics, is gambling that clunkiness will become the byword in chic, or reverse chic, for the 1980s. Vintage Swatch watches: Wristy Business (1984)Īrticle excerpted from New York magazine January 23, 1984 This trend quickly became a hit, and the flashy designs were soon appearing - sometimes two, three, four at a time - on the wrists of people across the globe. In a sea of neutral-colored watches, Swiss watchmaker Swatch revitalized that segment of the accessories industry when they came out with a bold and vibrant analog quartz marvel, sparking the colorful watch craze of the 1980s and 1990s. Those kids and teens were perfectly primed for a new way to wear their hearts on their sleeves. They already had their MTV, were wearing day-glo clothes and patterned leg warmers, and organized their school lives with the help of Trapper Keepers. In the ’80s, the world’s youth was in search of fresh new ways to stand out.
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