Today I read the New York Times obituary of Nicolas Hayek—the chairman of the Swatch group who introduced the watch to the world—and went into a nostalgia tailspin of Swatches I have known.
In 1984 my family went to Los Angeles to visit relatives and watch "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" run with the Olympic torch. My cousin Rachel was sporting a hair-do wherein almost everything was shaved to a tight military millimeter except for a hot pink shock of bangs that covered one eye in a sultry and jaded dismissal of quotidian aesthetics. I thought she was the coolest person I'd ever seen. Since I wasn't about to go back to grade school in middle Tennessee with neon hair, I coveted her attainable accessory—a Swatch watch.
On the plane ride home I brokered the biggest deal I'd ever laid on the table: I agreed to stop sucking my thumb if my parents would buy me a Swatch. It was the first object I would have done anything to have. My first industrial design love.
As it turned out, we all fell for the functional, stylish affordable Swiss timepiece. My parents have both sported a Swatch since 1984.
My first one was a charming 1980s design travesty in fluorescent yellow with intentionally ill-matched stripes on the face. The inscrutable face of a later "post modern" Swatch showed what appeared to be an abandoned house. (That one was lost at a high school soccer game. Rue the day!) Last year I optimistically gave my friend Ida her first Swatch for her third birthday. She calls it her clock and her teddy bear wears it most of the time.
Anyone out there have favorite Swatches of yore?
[Image from the Swatch website]
Sent from James' iPhone
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