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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just getting totally

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Speaker 2: tubular here on Stuff you Should Know.

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Speaker 3: You joke about the eighties, my friend, but swatches are

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Speaker 3: still very, very popular.

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Speaker 2: I never joke about the eighties. I'm quite serious about

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Speaker 2: the eighties.

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Speaker 3: That's right, we're talking about swatches. If you don't know

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Speaker 3: what a swatch is, you may not be into watches.

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Speaker 2: Or fun.

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Speaker 3: You may not be a gen xer. Although, like I said,

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Speaker 3: they're still around. I have recently gotten into watches for

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Speaker 3: the first time in my life. Really, Like I tried

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Speaker 3: to wear a watch. I remember when I was in

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Speaker 3: like seventh grade, and because I thought it kind of

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Speaker 3: looked cool. That was probably during the fake glasses period. Okay,

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Speaker 3: is it a fake No, it was a real watch,

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Speaker 3: but it never really took. And I've always kind of

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Speaker 3: said that I don't want things on my wrist. But

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Speaker 3: I got a watch. I got a couple of watches

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Speaker 3: about four months ago. I started just researching watches and

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Speaker 3: how they're made, and I was really just knocked out

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Speaker 3: by the craftsmanship, and so I got a couple of watches,

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Speaker 3: and I the other reason was partially so I could

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Speaker 3: look for the time and date without picking up my phone,

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Speaker 3: because I feel like that then keeps me on the phone.

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Speaker 2: That's a great, great idea.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it really works, and I love my watch

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Speaker 3: a lot. And today I bought this swatch.

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Speaker 2: Oh cool, which which kind is it a newer kind?

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Speaker 2: Is it vintage? Is it?

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Speaker 3: Well, it's it's newer, but you know, they they a

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Speaker 3: lot of the styles look like they did back then.

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Speaker 3: It's it's gonna be a good, like kind of fun

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Speaker 3: summer watch. It's not too wacky, but it's blue and

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Speaker 3: yellow and kind of has a big face. And it's

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Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty bucks, which is not nothing but

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Speaker 3: a quality watch for you know, a little over one

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Speaker 3: hundred dollars is a really good deal. These days, watches

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Speaker 3: are super expensive.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. And that's one thing about swatches

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Speaker 2: is they've kept their prices down all these years.

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Speaker 3: It's about the same with inflation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you could get swatches that are definitely

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Speaker 2: what they sold them for back in the eighties adjusted

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Speaker 2: for inflation. They also have some that are like a

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Speaker 2: little more expensive, and then I think the most expensive one.

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Speaker 2: Dave helped us with this. He turned up when that

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Speaker 2: was like just over three hundred dollars. And they do

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Speaker 2: have some like collaborations with some higher end watch companies

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Speaker 2: that are more expensive than that. But if you just

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Speaker 2: get a Swatch Swatch, the most you're going to spend

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Speaker 2: is about three hundred bucks. So yeah, yeah, so you

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Speaker 2: me and I when we went on our honeymoon, we

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Speaker 2: were walking around the mall as you do on your

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Speaker 2: honeymoon in Juai, and we just popped in a Swatch

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Speaker 2: store and we got like his in her the I

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Speaker 2: guess the jellyfish like she got pink and I got

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Speaker 2: blue watches. Even that's the clear one, right yeah, even Yeah,

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Speaker 2: a watch having that level of sentimentality, I still can't

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Speaker 2: just wear. I just couldn't wear it. I can't have

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Speaker 2: something on my wrist right. But over the years we

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Speaker 2: still kind of collected some swatches here there, and now

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Speaker 2: our collection Chuck includes one of those giant Swatch wall

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Speaker 2: clocks in a region one of and it's one of

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Speaker 2: the coolest things we own.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I had one of those, but it was a

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Speaker 3: knockoff of course it was a switch because you and

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Speaker 3: I very famously were not allowed basically any brand name,

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Speaker 3: right because we couldn't afford it. So I had I

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Speaker 3: had a knockoff whatever, like the Kmart version of that

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Speaker 3: was hanging hanging on my wall.

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Speaker 2: That's awesome. What did it look like?

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Speaker 3: It looked like a watch, you know, that's what yours

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Speaker 3: looks like, right, Like it's got the big band and everything,

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Speaker 3: and you just it's like hanging a big watch.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's ours. Is So they built like actual seven

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Speaker 2: foot tall with the band stretched out wall clocks called

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Speaker 2: the Maxi that were like giant versions of the actual

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Speaker 2: kinds of swatches you could buy on your wrist, right,

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Speaker 2: And the one we have is called I think the

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Speaker 2: White Memphis Style and it's from like nineteen eighty four,

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Speaker 2: I think something like that. And then we went and

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Speaker 2: got the actual watch to match.

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Speaker 3: Did you frame it next to it?

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Speaker 2: No, we just have it somewhere, so we pick it

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Speaker 2: up and look at it once in a while we're like, wow,

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Speaker 2: it really looks a lot like our wall clock.

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Speaker 3: Well, I just got to say, I'm not going to

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Speaker 3: try and talk you in anything, but as someone who

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Speaker 3: also did not light something on the wrist. I really

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Speaker 3: have gotten used to it, and it's to the point

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Speaker 3: now where it feels a little weird when I don't

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Speaker 3: have it on. That was fast, Yeah, and it's it's

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Speaker 3: a good, you know, good looking watch. It's kind of

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Speaker 3: nice to be like an adult and have a an

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Speaker 3: actual watch and not an Apple watch or something.

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Speaker 2: Right. So, one other thing about swatches that drove me crazy.

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Speaker 2: There's a distinct ticking sound that I couldn't not hear,

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Speaker 2: and I came to find that it was actually, I guess,

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Speaker 2: kind of a trait of swatches. I saw that from

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Speaker 2: researching this that swatches make a ticking sound and it's

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Speaker 2: because of the design, the very unique design they have,

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Speaker 2: which it will we'll get to that eventually, and when

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Speaker 2: we do, it's going to be eye popping.

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Speaker 3: Do you just keep waiting for sixty minutes to come

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Speaker 3: on TV?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I do, and then I just bury my head

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Speaker 2: under pillows till it's over all. Right.

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Speaker 3: Should we get into this thing, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Let's because what's interesting to me, Chuck, is that swatches

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Speaker 2: were born out of a mega crisis in Switzerland in

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Speaker 2: the beginning of the seventies.

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Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, everyone, Well, maybe not everyone. If you've never

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Speaker 3: don't know anything about watches, you may not know that

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Speaker 3: Switzerland is renowned for their watches. If you've ever heard

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Speaker 3: the term runs like a Swiss watch, that's not because

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Speaker 3: they're kreddy and that they're they break down and that

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Speaker 3: they don't keep good time. It's because they have long

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Speaker 3: been a country that just has amazing craftsmanship with not

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Speaker 3: only you know, putting watches together, but manufacturing the tiny

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Speaker 3: little parts and everything. That's you know, if you've heard

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Speaker 3: of Rolex and Cardier and Omega, like all these really

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Speaker 3: nice watch brands, they're coming out of Switzerland and they

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Speaker 3: always have been.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and one of the reasons why they're so ridiculously

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Speaker 2: high priced is that craftsmanship. Yeah, And that's just how

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Speaker 2: it was. Like, if you wanted a nice watch, you

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Speaker 2: bought a Swiss watch, and you paid through the nose

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Speaker 2: for it. And that's that was life until the Japanese

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Speaker 2: came along, Yes, and they said, we've got it. We

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Speaker 2: have an idea here. The Japanese are famous, chuck famous

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Speaker 2: for improving upon other people's inventions, just taking them and

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Speaker 2: making them just amazing. And this is a really good

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Speaker 2: example of that. Seiko introduced a watch called the Astron

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Speaker 2: on Christmas Day in nineteen sixty nine, and it completely

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Speaker 2: shook the watch world because the Astron was the world's

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Speaker 2: first courts watch and that that just changed the whole

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Speaker 2: the whole game, because you can make a court's watch

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Speaker 2: for very cheap and they keep much better time than

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Speaker 2: a traditional movement.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's interesting. They're they're cheaper, they last longer.

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Speaker 3: I guess there isn't the you know, the the fame

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Speaker 3: that attaches itself to, you know, a Swiss watch that's

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Speaker 3: made from all tiny little parts. But you can't argue

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Speaker 3: with quartz as a as an improvement. I'm hesitant to

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Speaker 3: almost say it's like clearly better, because you know, a

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Speaker 3: great mechanical watch is still a wonder to behold and

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Speaker 3: keeps really good time. But courts came along and it

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Speaker 3: was very disruptive to the industry. We talked a little

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Speaker 3: bit about court What.

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Speaker 2: Was that in it was semirismic clocks.

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Speaker 3: I felt even more recent than that, though, now, no, that.

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Speaker 2: Was pretty recently. It was only a few months ago,

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Speaker 2: was and that nuts?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like a few years and in the

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Speaker 3: best way possible, by the way. But quartz oscillates at

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Speaker 3: thirty two thousand, seven hundred and sixty eight times per second.

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Speaker 3: And when you have quartz as a part of your watch,

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Speaker 3: well not circuitry, but just as a part of it circuitry,

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Speaker 3: oh is it okay? Great? Then you can cut back

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Speaker 3: on a lot of those other little tiny parts and

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Speaker 3: you can make a thinner watch, like beyond the fact

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Speaker 3: that it just runs better and lasts longer. They can

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Speaker 3: be smaller and you don't have as many tiny little

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Speaker 3: parts that eventually could maybe break.

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Speaker 2: No, because in a traditional mechanical watch, when you wind it,

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Speaker 2: you're tensing. You're adding tension to a spring, and then

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Speaker 2: that spring slowly unwinds and it drives all these gears

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Speaker 2: and everything, and that's how it keeps track of the time.

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Speaker 2: And that's why if you look at a traditional mechanical watch,

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Speaker 2: the second hand that keeps track of the seconds goes

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Speaker 2: in a sweeping motion, an unbroken sweeping motion all around

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Speaker 2: the face. A courtz watch just ticks off one second

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Speaker 2: at a time. The second hand moves every second, and

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Speaker 2: the reason why is because that circuitry has counted thirty two,

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Speaker 2: seven hundred and sixty eight pulses and now it's time

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Speaker 2: to advance one second. So that's a huge difference. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: just the like you were saying, like, yes, courts is

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Speaker 2: obviously better, but in the way that like an advancement

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Speaker 2: tech in technology is better, that doesn't mean that the

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Speaker 2: craftsmanship that's competing with is any worse. And in some

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Speaker 2: ways it makes that craftsmanship, you know, that much more

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Speaker 2: desirable down the road.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. But these courtz watches came in from

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Speaker 3: Japan in the nineteen seventies after the debut in sixty

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Speaker 3: nine that you mentioned. Well, I guess that was Christmas

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Speaker 3: sixty nine, so.

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Speaker 2: The Summer of Love, the Christmas of Love.

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Speaker 3: Just a handful of days before the seventies, I think

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Speaker 3: right before Oh no, I guess that was seventies into

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Speaker 3: the eighties and Bookie.

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Speaker 2: Nights, Yeah that was that was like mid to late seventies.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, but that famous New Year's Eve scene when

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Speaker 3: oh yeah that's his name. You know, man, what a

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Speaker 3: bum Yeah, that's a big bummer. Anyway, courts watches come along,

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Speaker 3: they really disrupt the industry, and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 3: Switzerland found itself in a sort of a watch crisis.

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Speaker 3: Before this broke out before courts came along, they controlled

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Speaker 3: fifty percent of the whole watch market in the world.

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Speaker 3: And then by nineteen seventy seven, a mere seven years

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Speaker 3: after the debut of these Japanese courts watches, Seiko became

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Speaker 3: the largest watchmaker by revenue in the world, and Switzerland

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Speaker 3: saw their industry fall off from believe between seventy seven

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Speaker 3: and eighty three, from forty three percent to less than

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Speaker 3: fifteen percent, which is like a real, real financial crisis.

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Speaker 2: Yet it's you don't even have to know what a

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Speaker 2: number is to know that that's a massive financial crisis, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: And this is not just a couple of companies, This

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Speaker 2: is the entire Swiss watchmaking industry, which was a huge

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Speaker 2: part of the Swiss economy for centuries, right, So it

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Speaker 2: was a really it was a national crisis in Switzerland.

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Speaker 2: And so these companies that make up the Swiss Swiss

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Speaker 2: watch making industry were just dropping like flies. And it

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Speaker 2: came down to a couple like really major companies that

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Speaker 2: own brands like Omiga and Long Jeans and Tissou, like

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Speaker 2: just really high end Swiss watch brands. The two companies

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Speaker 2: were Alamine Switzirich Urin Industry Agre, my apologies to our

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Speaker 2: German listeners who we know were out there. And then

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Speaker 2: the other one is the Societa Swissport Industry or leger SA,

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Speaker 2: and I said that with a weird Spanish accent, but

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Speaker 2: that's in French. And these two companies were like mega

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Speaker 2: companies and they were like golias failing falling over. Essentially

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Speaker 2: they were in midfall.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, in mid free fall. And so what usually would

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Speaker 3: happen in a case like this with these big corporations

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Speaker 3: as you would take the assets that each company has,

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Speaker 3: like you know, these individual brands that they own, sell

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Speaker 3: them off, hopefully make some money doing that, and then

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Speaker 3: that's basically it. But a guy named Nicholas and this

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Speaker 3: is just I love this kind of story when someone

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Speaker 3: comes along and just says, no, we're not doing that.

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Speaker 3: And that was the case with Nicholas G. Hyak, who

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Speaker 3: if you ask people in Switzerland, in fact, there was

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Speaker 3: an actual survey like who were the best the best

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Speaker 3: with people of all time and they said Albert Einstein,

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Speaker 3: Henri Dunant, who created the red Cross in the Geneva convention,

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Speaker 3: and then Nicholas Hyak, who put his foot down and

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Speaker 3: said no, we're not selling these things off. We're going

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Speaker 3: to merge together these two big companies and we're going

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Speaker 3: to start making courts watches.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. He was the head of a marketing consulting firm,

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Speaker 2: essentially business consulting firm, and they were like, just come

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Speaker 2: in and figure out the best way to sell these

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Speaker 2: companies off for parts to the highest bidder, and like

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Speaker 2: you said, he said, no, I've got a much better idea.

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Speaker 2: And it wasn't like they were just like, oh, okay,

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Speaker 2: go do that. We don't care. We're eating metzger roach

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Speaker 2: tie over here, so who cares. They were very much

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Speaker 2: involved in this, and he had to convince the entire

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Speaker 2: Swiss watchmaking industry yeah, and all the Swiss banks that

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Speaker 2: were backing the industry and that would eventually back this merger, like, guys,

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Speaker 2: we need to merge these two companies, like Chuck will

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Speaker 2: eventually say on this podcast called Stuff you Should Know

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Speaker 2: years from now, and we need to make our we

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Speaker 2: need to like start making money handover fist really quick,

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Speaker 2: and we're not going to do that with these luxury brands.

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Speaker 2: We need to figure out how to make a very cheap,

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Speaker 2: very Swiss watch and get it to market asap.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but that's the key there that you mentioned, Like

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Speaker 3: they weren't saying, hey, let's get parts from Japan and

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Speaker 3: just kind of build from there. They were like, we're

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Speaker 3: going to make these things in Switzerland. We're going to

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Speaker 3: put our Swiss you know, our country's name behind these

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Speaker 3: basically which had so much pride in their you know,

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Speaker 3: watch craftsmanship, and we're going to make them all here

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Speaker 3: and that's going to be the difference. And he did

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Speaker 3: not invent or design the Swatch. He came up with

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Speaker 3: this idea for this merger. There had been prototypes of

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Speaker 3: this Swatch a couple of years before, I think nineteen

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Speaker 3: eighty one, two full years before this merger. There was

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Speaker 3: one called the Popularis, which was a courts watch. It's,

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Speaker 3: you know, not my style is very of the time

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Speaker 3: in eighty one, but it's it was thin and kind

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Speaker 3: of groovy looking, don't you think?

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Speaker 2: Sure? Yeah, And that was it.

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Speaker 3: That was the first one, but it was not a Swatch.

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Speaker 3: When Hyatt took over in eighty three, he was like,

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Speaker 3: we got to make these low en watches, and we

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Speaker 3: got to start making them like stylish. We want someone

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Speaker 3: to be able to go out and buy a cheap watch,

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Speaker 3: maybe who's never owned a watch before, because they were expensive.

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Speaker 2: M Luckily, he had some really good employees under his

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Speaker 2: well employee in these two merged companies. One of them

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Speaker 2: was a guy named Ernest tom Key. He's considered one

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Speaker 2: of the other fathers of Swatch. He had a couple

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Speaker 2: of designers, Jacques Muller and Elmar Mack working under him,

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Speaker 2: and between these three together you had some amazing designers

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Speaker 2: but also just really smart watch engineers. And tom Ky

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Speaker 2: in particular had been working for a good decade or

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Speaker 2: so trying to make the world's thinnest watch. Yeah, and

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Speaker 2: eventually he did. It was a watch called the Delirium.

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Speaker 2: It was less than two millimeters thick, that's five sixty

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Speaker 2: fourths of an inch thick, a watch with all of

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Speaker 2: the movie mints. And it wasn't a mechanical watch. It

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Speaker 2: was quartz, but it was still super duper thin even

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Speaker 2: for a quartz watch. And in fact, if you watch

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Speaker 2: Scarface Tony Montana's wearing one of these, it was just

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Speaker 2: a big, big deal. It was a very expensive watch

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Speaker 2: just because it was so thin, and also it was Swiss,

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Speaker 2: so if you put these guys who are really good

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Speaker 2: at designing and really good at engineering with fewer and

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Speaker 2: fewer parts in smaller and smaller spaces together, you've got

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Speaker 2: the basis for creating a brand new kind of watch

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Speaker 2: that Switzerland had never produced before, which is cheap, Swiss

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Speaker 2: and innovative and stylish.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny. It was very of the time, like thin, thin,

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Speaker 3: thin watches was a big thing back then. I kind

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Speaker 3: of even remember that. Yeah, I feel like and you know,

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Speaker 3: I've done a little bit of research since I've gotten

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Speaker 3: into watches a little bit, but it seems like seems

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Speaker 3: like chunky watches are kind of the thing now and

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Speaker 3: that very sort of thin even maybe rectangular bezel kind

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Speaker 3: of watch is and the bezel is just the you know,

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Speaker 3: the glass piece that sits over the top of everything

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Speaker 3: to protect it.

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Speaker 2: You have been doing your research, Well.

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Speaker 3: There's only a handful of watch parts and you got

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Speaker 3: to know what they are. Okay, but that doesn't seem

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Speaker 3: to be very in as in style anymore. But they

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Speaker 3: would get those parts down, you know, even for a

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Speaker 3: courtz watch. I think a typical courts watch had about

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Speaker 3: ninety one parts. They got that down all the way

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Speaker 3: to fifty one. They called it within the company Revolution

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Speaker 3: fifty one, and it was it was a big deal.

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Speaker 3: Like it was. I mean, they're still around and still

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Speaker 3: a huge company for all these reasons.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And okay, so that's going on. You've got Tom

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Speaker 2: Key creating watches with fewer and fewer parts. At the

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Speaker 2: same time, Elmar Mack he had this dream to start

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Speaker 2: using plastic injection molding, yeah, to make watches. And rather

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Speaker 2: than get approval to buy a plastic injection molding machine,

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Speaker 2: which was like half a million marks I think at

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Speaker 2: the time, he dis ordered it. And so luckily they

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Speaker 2: had this plastic injection molding machine and they used it

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Speaker 2: to create the first watches, and that helped them reduce

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Speaker 2: the number of movements even more because a lot of

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Speaker 2: the movement parts are what mount the actual moving parts

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Speaker 2: to the watch. And what they did was they built

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Speaker 2: in all of those parts that mount the movement to

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Speaker 2: the watch into the case itself, so it was all

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Speaker 2: one solid part and that even further dropped the number

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Speaker 2: of moving parts needed that much more in the original

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Speaker 2: swatches that came out.

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Speaker 3: Look at you, you said, case, what did that's a

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Speaker 3: watch part?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Thanks? I thought I'd been saying, like, Kasi this

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Speaker 2: whole time, You're finally You're like, you finally got it, Jos.

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Speaker 3: All right, shall we take a break. Yeah, all right,

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Speaker 3: let's take our first break here and we come back.

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Speaker 3: We'll talk a little bit more about the early days

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Speaker 3: of this swatch. Okay, so we're back with Swatches. Switzerland

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Speaker 3: has this great idea, but they had a little bit

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Speaker 3: of a just sort of an early challenge on their hands.

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Speaker 3: You know. They found how to reduce the parts and

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Speaker 3: make everything cheaper, which was great, but they eventually looked

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Speaker 3: around their factory and said, here's the deal. We want

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Speaker 3: to make these all here, but everyone here makes a

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Speaker 3: ton of money. Like Switzerland just for regular old jobs

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Speaker 3: has the highest, you know, some of the highest wages

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Speaker 3: in the world, at least it has for a long time.

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Speaker 3: So you know, they could have outsourced. They could have

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Speaker 3: gotten some parts from different you know, countries in the

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Speaker 3: world and have them brought in and maybe just assembled

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Speaker 3: in Switzerland. But they held firm and they said, no,

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Speaker 3: we're not going to do it. We need to just

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Speaker 3: innovate and get manufacturing technologies that are so advanced that

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Speaker 3: we can get these things down to like, you know,

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Speaker 3: thirty to fifty bucks and they were able to do it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of the reasons why Hayek or Hyak

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Speaker 2: is so revered. Not only did he challenge the watchmakers

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Speaker 2: in Switzerland to make a cheap Swiss Swiss watch, he

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Speaker 2: also was like, now you have to redesign how we

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Speaker 2: make watches from the ground up. And they were successful

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Speaker 2: and they ended up coming up with the Swatch. And

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Speaker 2: as much as that is a like the innovation to

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Speaker 2: the whole thing is impressive, the marketing piece to swatches was.

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Speaker 2: I mean it was just as just as much a

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Speaker 2: part of Swatch is this new way of making watches

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Speaker 2: because Hyak was he saw watches a little differently. He

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Speaker 2: was an outsider, and up to that point, if you

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Speaker 2: made watches, you considered watches jewelry, high end jewelry essentially. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and he was like, no, this is you're overthinking watches,

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Speaker 2: or at least you're overthinking this watch that we're making.

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Speaker 2: These are not jewelry. We're gonna make them fashion statements,

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Speaker 2: like fashion items. And just like say ties or shoes,

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Speaker 2: and you have more than one tie, and you have

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Speaker 2: more than one pair of shoes. We're gonna make it

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Speaker 2: so these people who are buying our watches want more

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Speaker 2: than one watch. It's gonna be amazing guys.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and they went in. I mean it was a

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Speaker 3: huge risk, but you know, he painted a picture of like,

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Speaker 3: imagine a world where teenagers want four and five of

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Speaker 3: these and all of a sudden they're you know, over

396
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Speaker 3: the course of a few years, they're investing you know,

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Speaker 3: two or three hundred dollars in their watch collection. And

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Speaker 3: that's a good start, and you know, it could be

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Speaker 3: a second watch for people. And that was in fact,

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Speaker 3: if you've always thought this watch was Swiss plus Watch,

401
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:58,080
Speaker 3: you're probably right. But other people, including Hayek, have said

402
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:02,439
Speaker 3: it was actually a mashup of Second Watch. But you know,

403
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Speaker 3: they had a marketing people that came in. There was

404
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Speaker 3: a guy, a consultant named Franz Schprecher. He supposedly coined

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Speaker 3: the name Swatch, and he officially said, no, it was

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Speaker 3: Swiss plus Watch. Other people in the company did say

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Speaker 3: second Watch. So either way you get Swatch. My money

408
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Speaker 3: is on officially probably Swiss Watch me too.

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Speaker 2: That's what I'm going with.

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Speaker 3: But who cares. It's a Swatch.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And The first twelve Swatches came out in nineteen

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Speaker 2: eighty three March. First they debuted in Switzerland, Germany and

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Speaker 2: the UK. And if you go look back at the

414
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Speaker 2: original twelve Swatches, you'd be like, those are swatches. You

415
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Speaker 2: can tell it's got some swatch quality to it, but

416
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Speaker 2: it just is so boring and stayed in middle of

417
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Speaker 2: the road as far as its design goes. And it

418
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Speaker 2: turns out that was a deliberate decision because as they

419
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Speaker 2: were about to go to market with these things, apparently everybody,

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Speaker 2: including Hyatt, got cold feet and was like, what happens

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Speaker 2: if Yeah, so they decided to go with the colors

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Speaker 2: that the Swiss Army uses in their uniforms. So if

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Speaker 2: it was a flop, they could turn around to the

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00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:19,479
Speaker 2: Swiss Army and be like, why don't you buy all

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Speaker 2: these surplus watches? Can at least try to break even here?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Liked you? Guys said great with your knives, so

427
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Speaker 3: imagine what you could do with a watch.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Have you seen Swiss Army Man?

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Speaker 3: Yes? I have?

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Speaker 2: Okay, got you? Yes?

431
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Speaker 3: Did you like it?

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Speaker 2: I did in a lot of ways. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a crazy movie. The directors of everything everywhere

434
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 3: all at once.

435
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:49,280
Speaker 2: Right, Oh, that makes sense. I didn't know that. That

436
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 2: definitely makes sense now.

437
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:52,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they were always sort of on the outside

438
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 3: there with those wacky ideas.

439
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:55,400
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.

440
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,439
Speaker 3: All right, So they were selling these first ones for

441
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 3: about fifty pounds in the UK, those twelve watches sold

442
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 3: even though they were people had no idea what they

443
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:06,600
Speaker 3: were in for with this watch based on these twelve,

444
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:11,439
Speaker 3: but they still loved them. They sold very well. Summer

445
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,960
Speaker 3: of eighty three comes along and they had another brilliant

446
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 3: you know, one of the most brilliant marketing marketed companies

447
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 3: of all time probably was its Swatch. But they said, hey,

448
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:26,919
Speaker 3: I don't even think people are saying the term drops yet.

449
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 3: Maybe they were. I'm kind of curious when that started.

450
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:33,639
Speaker 3: A shoe drop or a jersey drop or something, or

451
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,400
Speaker 3: a hat drop. But they had a Swatch drop called

452
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 3: the jellyfish. My brother had one of these, and I

453
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 3: was texting him yesterday and I was like, did you

454
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:45,399
Speaker 3: have the original nineteen eighty three jellyfish that was the

455
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,680
Speaker 3: clear one? And he said he sold it a little

456
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 3: while ago for a little bit of money, and he said,

457
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:53,359
Speaker 3: I don't think it was one of the first years

458
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 3: and he said, why is that a big deal? Or

459
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:57,280
Speaker 3: he didn't know it was the first year. He said,

460
00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:58,920
Speaker 3: why was the eighty three a big deal? It's like, well,

461
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,720
Speaker 3: that was the first one, if I remember. He got

462
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 3: it a couple of years later, and you can still

463
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:06,239
Speaker 3: they still make like versions of the Jellyfish now. But

464
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 3: it took off once the Jellyfish hit and the idea

465
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,680
Speaker 3: of these drops, these special releases. They would release collections

466
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 3: in the fall in the spring, and then one off

467
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 3: specials once a year and they were huge.

468
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think they even did seasonal specials, so a

469
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 2: few times a year. But the fact that these were

470
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 2: just you know, they'd come and go pretty quickly, like

471
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 2: they'd make a limited amount, it would sell out really quickly.

472
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:38,480
Speaker 2: People started collecting swatches. There was a I can't remember

473
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 2: deliberate scarcity, I guess yeah, created by the seasonal one offs, right,

474
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:49,440
Speaker 2: and that helped propel swatch like from watchmaker to this

475
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,159
Speaker 2: is exactly what Hayek was going for. These are fashion items,

476
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:57,400
Speaker 2: they're fashion statements. They're desirable things that people can buy

477
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 2: multiple ones of and show you know who they are

478
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 2: inside by wearing something on the outside.

479
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 3: Essentially, Yeah, ironically, maybe wearing a swatch with your muscle

480
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 3: shirt of the Japanese flag because those were big.

481
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 2: Don't forget the headband, the matching headband.

482
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,359
Speaker 3: I had to have the matching headband. We played an

483
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 3: eighties set our bandit at the porch Fest in our

484
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 3: neighborhood a few years ago, and I wore like an

485
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 3: MTV shirt and these like Neon glasses and stuff, and

486
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,439
Speaker 3: I had the headband. I was like, geez, is that

487
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 3: even something you can do these days? Like wear a

488
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 3: headband of a Japanese flag. Certain, I'm not even sure

489
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 3: if I feel good about it, but I didn't do

490
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:38,400
Speaker 3: it in the end.

491
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, that's probably good because you know those hipsters

492
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 2: will throw beer bottles at you on stage, like the

493
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 2: Blues Brothers.

494
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, well but we have a a chicken wire protecting us,

495
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 3: so it's fine.

496
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,040
Speaker 2: Luckily. I mean, you got to if you're going to

497
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,160
Speaker 2: wear a Japanese headband in twenty twenty three. Yeah, let's

498
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:55,119
Speaker 2: see where were we?

499
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:57,359
Speaker 3: Well, I guess we can go to eighty five, because

500
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:00,399
Speaker 3: that's when that's when things really change, right.

501
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I guess the whole thing was kind of

502
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 2: like you said, they started they sold pretty well initially,

503
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:10,919
Speaker 2: and then when they started to add the one offs

504
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 2: like that, that became like a really big deal. But

505
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:17,880
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five was when Swatch expanded even further out,

506
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 2: and actually I think eighty four, yeah, is when they

507
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 2: started to expand they were kind of they like the

508
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,200
Speaker 2: Red Bull model of like, oh, that's a crazy sport,

509
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,679
Speaker 2: let's let's sponsor that. Swatch looked around as like this

510
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:32,880
Speaker 2: is super cool and the kids are into this, let's

511
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,680
Speaker 2: sponsor this or that or this, And what they came

512
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:39,640
Speaker 2: up with first was the Swatchwatch New York City fresh Fest,

513
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:44,120
Speaker 2: which is considered the first hip hop concert tour ever.

514
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was Houdini and Curtis Blow and Run, DMC

515
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 3: fat Boys I saw. I think they did it for

516
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 3: a few years because it saw where like the Beastie

517
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,120
Speaker 3: Boys opened up. But yeah, that had to have been

518
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 3: like that maybe second or third year. But it was

519
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 3: a big deal and they were on the leading edge

520
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:03,280
Speaker 3: of kind of everything that was cool in the early

521
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:06,479
Speaker 3: to mid eighties. So of course what you're gonna have

522
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 3: is people trying to get in on that. And they

523
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 3: had like the cheap, cheap knockoffs, like literally some of

524
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 3: them were named Watch, Mwatch and things like that. But

525
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 3: like legitimate brands like Guest Genes, Guests started making watches

526
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 3: and some other big eighties brands started getting in there

527
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 3: on the watch scene, like clearly ripping off swatches.

528
00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, one brand was Armitron's watch. Yeah, I don't know

529
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:37,800
Speaker 2: what that is, but I went back and looked at him,

530
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 2: and I was like, these are actually kind of cool.

531
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 3: They were, They were all cool.

532
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 2: They actually pushed the envelope a little further, Like Swatch

533
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 2: came along and like laid the groundwork for other people

534
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,040
Speaker 2: to go even more crazy with their watches, and Armitron

535
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 2: was one of them. And so there's nothing wrong with

536
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 2: some friendly competition. Swatch had no problems with that. What

537
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 2: Swatch had a problem with was the counterfeit that were

538
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 2: flooding the market. Yeah, about as fast as genuine swatches

539
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 2: were selling.

540
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, watches seem to be one of the most counterfeited

541
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 3: sort of high end items, and I guess in this

542
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:16,280
Speaker 3: case not as high end, but you know, fake Rolex's.

543
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 3: There's always been a market for counterfeit watches, and watches

544
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 3: was no different. They were selling eleven thousand legitimate watches

545
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 3: a day a day in nineteen eighty four, and they

546
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 3: estimated that ten thousand fakes were being imported every day.

547
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,480
Speaker 2: Man, that's crazy. Yeah, you said that. They were kind

548
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 2: of trying to get their fingers into every cool thing

549
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 2: that was emerging at the time. Another thing I saw

550
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:45,120
Speaker 2: was that they sponsored the Impact skateboarding tour, Oh yeah,

551
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 2: starting in nineteen eighty eight. That was a big one too.

552
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,320
Speaker 2: And then also one of the other things Swatch became

553
00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 2: really famous for was collaborating with artists like the hottest

554
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,440
Speaker 2: artists of the day. And the big one, the one

555
00:29:57,440 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 2: that really kind of put it all over the top,

556
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 2: was one the early ones. In nineteen eighty six, they

557
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 2: had Keith Haring designed four different watches, and they are today,

558
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 2: I think, the most coveted swatches like ever by collectors.

559
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 3: Yeah for sure. I mean they're cool looking, it's Keith

560
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 3: Haring and it's on a watch base, So what more

561
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 3: do you need to know? They went to Andy Warhol

562
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:22,959
Speaker 3: first and he said, no, I don't have time for this,

563
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 3: he said, but you should get this guy, Keith Haring.

564
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 3: I think if you have an entire like primo collection

565
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 3: of those four you can get, you know, up to

566
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 3: one hundred grand for those four watches at auction.

567
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 2: Yeah. And the way that you tell their primo is

568
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:40,640
Speaker 2: you take your pinky and you dab it on the

569
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 2: watch bezel, Yeah, and stick it to your tongue or

570
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 2: maybe your gum, and you're like, yeah, it's a primo

571
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 2: watch Man.

572
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 3: This is pure, pure bezel.

573
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 2: So they also, aside from hering, they collaborate with a

574
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 2: bunch of other artists. Yoko Ono, Yeah, delivered one or

575
00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 2: a bunch of butts naked bottoms. That's a super yoko

576
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 2: on a thing to do. Pigicasso, the pig that paints.

577
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 2: I can't believe that they didn't clean up the art

578
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 2: that they used from him. It's just too it's too appealing.

579
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 2: It's not there's no mess ups in it, you know

580
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 2: what I mean? Yeah, I just I think they may

581
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:26,440
Speaker 2: have done that. And then Alfred Hope hoof Kunst, hoof Kunst.

582
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 2: What would you say, mister Laffey.

583
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 3: Uh, Alfred, I would probably say a half kunst.

584
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I said that in one of the

585
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 2: five times I tried it.

586
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:39,840
Speaker 3: I'm sure you did well.

587
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:43,520
Speaker 2: Anyway, he had another legendary release in nineteen ninety one,

588
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 2: he designed three swatches that were basically food. It looked

589
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 2: like food. One is bacon and eggs, one's a disturbing

590
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 2: looking cucumber, puffy cucumber, and otherre's a tomato. And then

591
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 2: the big marketing thing that came up with for this

592
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 2: is that in Europe you bought them in the grocery

593
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 2: aisles of a supermarket. That's where you could get those swatches,

594
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 2: which is kind of cool.

595
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like you could get swatches in a

596
00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 3: lot of different places, like maybe if you lived in

597
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 3: a big enough city you had an actual swatch store,

598
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 3: But didn't they just sell them at like, you know,

599
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,120
Speaker 3: the poster headshops and places like that too.

600
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was another thing too. You could also get

601
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 2: them at like department stores, Like you could get them

602
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 2: all over the place, right, Yeah, and they figured that out,

603
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 2: I read after they tried the traditional route, which is

604
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:35,960
Speaker 2: sending them to jewelry stores, and in the US they

605
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 2: did not catch on immediately because they're the main stores

606
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,240
Speaker 2: that they tried to sell swatches through to the United

607
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:50,239
Speaker 2: States first were jewelry stores in San Antonio, Texas. Yeah,

608
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 2: and they didn't sell very well. They went back to

609
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 2: the drawing board, They're like, let's try this a different way,

610
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 2: and then they started to sell them all over the place,

611
00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 2: and then they took off very quickly in the US

612
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 2: after that, and they're like, Middle America doesn't want these,

613
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 2: so we're going to go to the coasts. And the

614
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 2: coasts supported Swatch for a very long time until they

615
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 2: caught on. In the Midwest.

616
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 3: They couldn't even sell there. There's no basement in the

617
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:14,160
Speaker 3: Alamos watch there, it's right, So you know that was trouble.

618
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. I lived in the Midwest. I grew up

619
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 2: in the Midwest, and I don't think I got my

620
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 2: first watch until nineteen eighty six. Probably.

621
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 3: You know, my first Swatch is coming in the mail

622
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 3: in the next week. I've never owned one.

623
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't wait to see that one when it arrives.

624
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 3: Yeah. Part of it was it, like I said, I

625
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 3: didn't wear watches back then, But I don't know. I

626
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 3: think the other thing is just like, I mean, you're

627
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 3: lucky you got one because you kind of grew up

628
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 3: how I did, which was like, hey, if it's cool

629
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 3: and cost money, you're not getting it.

630
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, for sure, I did too. I wore Knights

631
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 2: of the round table shirts see more than once.

632
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 3: But good for you got that swatch.

633
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 2: You know. I worked myself to the bone. Yeah, cuttlawns,

634
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 2: were walking the dog, cutting lawns, taking out the trash.

635
00:33:57,320 --> 00:33:58,840
Speaker 3: So you bought it yourself then, it wasn't like a

636
00:33:58,920 --> 00:33:59,600
Speaker 3: Christmas gift.

637
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 2: No, I my parents still got it for me.

638
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 3: Yeah.

639
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 2: It didn't make that much money, but I think it's

640
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 2: still it were only like thirty or forty dollars.

641
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,280
Speaker 3: But yeah, back then that was a lot of dough.

642
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,440
Speaker 2: Though it was, but it was still most people with

643
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:17,359
Speaker 2: a job could afford us watch no problem. Essentially. I

644
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,400
Speaker 2: was just ten, you know.

645
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was too busy spending you know, eight dollars

646
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 3: to go to concerts and arenas when I was twelve

647
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 3: years old for my bus boy wages.

648
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:32,959
Speaker 2: That's awesome. I wait, twelve, You started working at twelve, Josh.

649
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 3: I was a busboy at a barbecue restaurant when I

650
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 3: was twelve years old.

651
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,759
Speaker 2: No, I know. That's where the guy put his foot

652
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,960
Speaker 2: in the Brunswick stew. That's legendary. Butwell I never caught

653
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 2: on that it was twelve.

654
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 3: It was twelve. It was totally illegal and under the table.

655
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:49,879
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, and it's what's so funny, as I'm trying

656
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 3: to imagine everyone who doesn't know that Brunswicks two story

657
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 3: wondering what in the world you're talking about.

658
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 2: You can go listen to Restaurant Health Inspections. Is the

659
00:34:58,480 --> 00:34:59,400
Speaker 2: story where that dates?

660
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 3: Oh okay, yeah, and it's popped up weirdly several times.

661
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 2: Well, it's kind of an important story.

662
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:08,640
Speaker 3: It's funny. It just came up last night. We were

663
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 3: watching an episode of The Bear, which, by the way,

664
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 3: I don't like this new season. I'm not sure if

665
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 3: you're into it or not.

666
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 2: I couldn't get into I watched the first episode or two,

667
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 2: and I just it wasn't for.

668
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 3: Me, the whole show or the new season. The whole

669
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,919
Speaker 3: show okay, yeah, first two seasons good, I'm not liking

670
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 3: this one anyway. There was a scene in the walk

671
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 3: in cooler where the guy's just sitting in there, and

672
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:31,759
Speaker 3: I was like, oh God, I used to love the

673
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 3: walk in cooler because it always gets so hot and

674
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 3: I would be working over the dishwasher and just sweating

675
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:39,759
Speaker 3: with all that steam, and I would go and the

676
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:41,239
Speaker 3: someone asked me to go to the walk in to

677
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 3: get something, and I would always take twice as longm

678
00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:45,480
Speaker 3: just so I could be there in the coolness and

679
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:47,640
Speaker 3: watch Randy put his foot in the projects.

680
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:51,279
Speaker 2: Stew Man. That is so gross, dude, Like I could

681
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 2: throw up now if I really stopped and thought about

682
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 2: it for a while. No, I think we need a.

683
00:35:55,880 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: Break, all right, let's take a break.

684
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 2: So Chuck's Swatch watches weren't the only things that Swatch made.

685
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,400
Speaker 2: If you were alive in the eighties, almost anything that

686
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:27,279
Speaker 2: Swatch made in the first five years was super cool.

687
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 2: Just landed. There was the phone Swatch, which was just

688
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,400
Speaker 2: like the Jellyfish. It was a see through phone, so

689
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:36,359
Speaker 2: you could see all the parts and they used very

690
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,799
Speaker 2: colorful parts. Yeah, to make the phone one of the

691
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:43,880
Speaker 2: cooler phones of all time. There was that Maxi swatch,

692
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 2: the wall clock that I was talking about totally, there was.

693
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:49,840
Speaker 2: This was one of my favorites. I can still almost

694
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 2: smell one of them, the Granita de Fruda line, the

695
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:54,240
Speaker 2: Italian ice line.

696
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 3: It smelled right, Yeah.

697
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 2: The pink one was raspberry, and that's the one I

698
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 2: can remember smelling. The yellow one smelled like banana. The

699
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:02,800
Speaker 2: green ones smelled like mint.

700
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:06,880
Speaker 3: How long though, like after being that rubber band on

701
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 3: your sweaty wrist in the summertime. What did that things

702
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:10,800
Speaker 3: smell like after a month?

703
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 2: I mean, not good, But when you first got it,

704
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 2: it was amazing. I can remember that smell, and I

705
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 2: can remember the smell of Strawberry Shortcake. Do you remember

706
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:19,440
Speaker 2: how she smelled?

707
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,720
Speaker 3: No, I didn't play with Strawberry Shortcake.

708
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 2: For my money, one of the best smelling dolls of

709
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 2: all time. Okay, but so anyway, not everything that Swatch

710
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:34,359
Speaker 2: put out, especially after the first few years, was a hit.

711
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 2: There were some flops. There were some middle of the

712
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:39,799
Speaker 2: road ones, and then there were some others that were

713
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:40,799
Speaker 2: like it's pretty good.

714
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, And this is mainly through the nineties. They tried

715
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 3: to branch into, you know, like the cell phone market

716
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 3: and stuff like that, when that became a thing. I

717
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:55,200
Speaker 3: think ninety three was when they teamed up with Nokia

718
00:37:56,200 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 3: to make a Swatch looking cell phone. So you know,

719
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:03,240
Speaker 3: that didn't sell so great. They had some other ideas

720
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:06,400
Speaker 3: that kind of came and went again not selling so great.

721
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 3: None of these were like bona fide hits, right.

722
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,120
Speaker 2: The twin phone from nineteen eighty nine was it was

723
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 2: like Memphis design and like the they had a handset,

724
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:20,280
Speaker 2: and then the base also doubled as a second handset,

725
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:22,839
Speaker 2: so yeah, the frame could talk on the phone other

726
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,279
Speaker 2: people at the same time. Yeah, and it looked cool too.

727
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 2: But then there was stuff like the Swatch Beat, which

728
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:31,799
Speaker 2: was from nineteen ninety eight, where they essentially tried to

729
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 2: recreate how we track time by dividing the day up

730
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 2: into one thousand beats. So zero zero zero beats was midnight,

731
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,800
Speaker 2: nine nine nine beats was eleven to fifty nine PM,

732
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,719
Speaker 2: and each beat was eighty six point four seconds, And

733
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:52,360
Speaker 2: everybody said, Swatch, Yeah, we've been using sixty seconds for

734
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:54,839
Speaker 2: a really long time, and we're all pretty comfortable with it.

735
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:56,600
Speaker 2: We're just gonna stick with that.

736
00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, make your swatches and make them like we

737
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 3: love them. Although in the nineties is when they started

738
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:09,760
Speaker 3: they started making mechanical watches again under this Swatch banner

739
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 3: and started making sort of higher end stuff watches with

740
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 3: metal cases, partnering with some of their other you know,

741
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 3: luxury brands to make you know, sort of hybrid luxury swatches.

742
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 3: And like you said early on, you can still you know,

743
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:30,080
Speaker 3: get like a three hundred dollars swatch these days, it's

744
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:34,640
Speaker 3: mechanical and metal, Yeah, which is you know, it's cool

745
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 3: to diverse fy a little bit, I guess, and that

746
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,400
Speaker 3: those seem to be selling, okay.

747
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean they definitely did diverse Fy. They

748
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:45,360
Speaker 2: had a digital touch screen watch years before the Apple Watch. Like,

749
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,920
Speaker 2: they really have done some innovative stuff. It's just a

750
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 2: lot of it hasn't caught on. But one that one

751
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:53,560
Speaker 2: thing that they kind of branched off into that I

752
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 2: wasn't aware it was Swatch, but it was the smart car.

753
00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 2: It was a collaboration with Mercedes Smart stands for Swatch

754
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 2: Mercedes Art car. Who did you know that?

755
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:07,240
Speaker 3: Of course not nobody knows that.

756
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I thought that was pretty cool. It was

757
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 2: originally going to be called the Swatchmobile. It would have

758
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:14,560
Speaker 2: never sold, but I think it would have been a

759
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 2: pretty cool secondary market collector's item for sure.

760
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 3: Second car, the car that's right. Hey, you know what

761
00:40:22,239 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 3: Scott Ackerman, friend of the show. He actually I was

762
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,400
Speaker 3: on Comedy Bang Bang as a guest and he told me.

763
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:29,239
Speaker 3: I can't remember how it came up, but he told

764
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 3: me that factoid about this Swatch car.

765
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 2: Oh really, it's good for Swatch Mercedes Art Car had

766
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 2: no idea.

767
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I didn't know. This is before we had

768
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 3: covered swatches, so I didn't know at the time and

769
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,839
Speaker 3: he wasn't sure. And I told them that if that, well,

770
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 3: we found out it was true, and I told him

771
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 3: that I would shout him out on the show. But yeah,

772
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:50,800
Speaker 3: if you want to check out that episode of Comedy

773
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:53,279
Speaker 3: Bang Bang, I was on it with Scott in the

774
00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:53,799
Speaker 3: Gang and it.

775
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 2: Was a lot of fun, very cool. So, like we said,

776
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:01,560
Speaker 2: Swatch came along and they it saved the watch industry

777
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:05,040
Speaker 2: in Switzerland so much so that all of those amazing

778
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:09,759
Speaker 2: luxury brands like Tissow and Umiga and Long Jeans, they're

779
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 2: all owned by the Swatch group. That's how that's how

780
00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 2: important Swatch was to the Swiss market. That it was like, yeah,

781
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 2: it's Swatch, We're all Swatched and that's how you can

782
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:25,239
Speaker 2: find those brands still today. And to kind of give

783
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 2: you an idea of how much of a hit Swatch was.

784
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty three, they sold one point one million

785
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:35,320
Speaker 2: swatches around the world. Three years later they were selling

786
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 2: twelve million a year. That's pretty impressive as far as

787
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 2: the whole thing goes.

788
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you want a dollar figure for the companies.

789
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,759
Speaker 3: When they merged, they were losing one hundred and twenty

790
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,279
Speaker 3: four million dollars a year. Ten years later, after this

791
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,720
Speaker 3: watch comes along, they were posting profits of two hundred

792
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 3: and eighty six million dollars a year, and as of

793
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:01,839
Speaker 3: last year in twenty twenty three, the Swatch Group is

794
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:06,840
Speaker 3: reporting profits of more than a billion dollars, which is amazing.

795
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:10,759
Speaker 3: What a success story. I think they're selling like close

796
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,600
Speaker 3: to six million actual swatches a year still.

797
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 2: Still yeah, And I mean part of that is because

798
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,879
Speaker 2: they release so many there's so many swatches and people

799
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:21,200
Speaker 2: just love them and they're cheap enough. But I mean

800
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,959
Speaker 2: that's still impressive. However you slice it, it's incredible. There's

801
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,000
Speaker 2: one other fact that I love that I wanted to

802
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 2: throw in, so because those parts were sealed into the

803
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:34,320
Speaker 2: case when the case was built or injected, you couldn't

804
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:37,640
Speaker 2: repair a swatch. I think you still can't. An original

805
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:39,960
Speaker 2: plastic swatch, you couldn't repair it. And when Swatch first

806
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,759
Speaker 2: came out, everybody was up in arms about that. So

807
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,560
Speaker 2: Swatch conducted a study to figure out how long a

808
00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:48,560
Speaker 2: swatch would last, and they came up with thirty years

809
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:52,719
Speaker 2: so if you're exactly if your forty dollars watch is

810
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 2: going to last you thirty years, you can shut your

811
00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 2: mouth about whether you can repair it or not. I

812
00:42:57,600 --> 00:42:59,400
Speaker 2: think that was in their official press statement.

813
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:00,799
Speaker 3: That's right, you shut your mouth.

814
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:02,480
Speaker 2: You got anything else?

815
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 3: I got nothing else. This is a fun little trip

816
00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 3: down memory lane. I can't wait for my swatch to

817
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:11,360
Speaker 3: get here. I will post that on at Chuck the Podcaster,

818
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:13,719
Speaker 3: and I'll throw it up on this stuff. You should

819
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 3: know Instagram as well.

820
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 2: Very nice And since Chuck mentioned that he is at

821
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:21,880
Speaker 2: Chuck the Podcast on Instagram, that means it's time for

822
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:22,640
Speaker 2: a listener mail.

823
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:26,600
Speaker 3: Would you post the his and hers?

824
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:29,799
Speaker 2: Sure? Yeah, Well, now that I've talked about it, I

825
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:31,760
Speaker 2: feel bad, I'm going to start trying to wear it again.

826
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:35,840
Speaker 3: See what happens. Yeah, you know what, in lou of

827
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 3: listener Mail this week, we're gonna do something we haven't

828
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:41,080
Speaker 3: done in a long long time. We are here in

829
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 3: your seventeen still trying to grow this show. Everybody. So

830
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 3: this is a special call to go and rate and

831
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:50,759
Speaker 3: review us on iTunes or anywhere that you can rate

832
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:52,759
Speaker 3: and review stuff. You should know that stuff really helps

833
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:54,919
Speaker 3: us and kind of like the old day's like tell

834
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:57,640
Speaker 3: tell your friends and family and coworkers like how much

835
00:43:57,680 --> 00:44:01,439
Speaker 3: you enjoy the show if you do, and that helps

836
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 3: us out. We're still looking to grow this show after

837
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,000
Speaker 3: all these years, and the way we did it from

838
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,000
Speaker 3: day one was very much organically through word of mouth.

839
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:11,840
Speaker 3: So we're asking you again for a nudge.

840
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:15,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks in advance for any nudge you can give us.

841
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 2: Everybody in the meantime before you give us a nudge,

842
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:21,719
Speaker 2: or while you're giving us a nudge at any point,

843
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 2: if you want to get in touch with us and

844
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 2: say hi or whatever you or send us photos of

845
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 2: your swatches, that's great. You can send it off to

846
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 2: stuff Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com.

847
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 3: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

848
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:41,880
Speaker 3: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

849
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:43,840
Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.