WEBVTT - Swatches! 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.200 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.399 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.360 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just getting totally 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.680 tubular here on Stuff you Should Know. 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.080 You joke about the eighties, my friend, but swatches are 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:24.960 still very, very popular. 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.480 I never joke about the eighties. I'm quite serious about 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:29.000 the eighties. 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.280 That's right, we're talking about swatches. If you don't know 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.760 what a swatch is, you may not be into watches. 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:38.640 Or fun. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.960 You may not be a gen xer. Although, like I said, 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:47.839 they're still around. I have recently gotten into watches for 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.520 the first time in my life. Really, Like I tried 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:51.879 to wear a watch. I remember when I was in 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.960 like seventh grade, and because I thought it kind of 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.000 looked cool. That was probably during the fake glasses period. Okay, 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.280 is it a fake No, it was a real watch, 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.440 but it never really took. And I've always kind of 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.320 said that I don't want things on my wrist. But 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.000 I got a watch. I got a couple of watches 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.200 about four months ago. I started just researching watches and 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.040 how they're made, and I was really just knocked out 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:25.680 by the craftsmanship, and so I got a couple of watches, 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.480 and I the other reason was partially so I could 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.520 look for the time and date without picking up my phone, 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.640 because I feel like that then keeps me on the phone. 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:36.600 That's a great, great idea. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.600 Yeah, so it really works, and I love my watch 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.679 a lot. And today I bought this swatch. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.479 Oh cool, which which kind is it a newer kind? 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:46.720 Is it vintage? Is it? 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.680 Well, it's it's newer, but you know, they they a 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:52.640 lot of the styles look like they did back then. 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:55.360 It's it's gonna be a good, like kind of fun 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.720 summer watch. It's not too wacky, but it's blue and 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:02.040 yellow and kind of has a big face. And it's 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.640 one hundred and twenty bucks, which is not nothing but 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.120 a quality watch for you know, a little over one 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.639 hundred dollars is a really good deal. These days, watches 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:12.799 are super expensive. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.440 Yeah, it really is. And that's one thing about swatches 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.360 is they've kept their prices down all these years. 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:20.880 It's about the same with inflation. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.679 Yeah, yeah, and you could get swatches that are definitely 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.560 what they sold them for back in the eighties adjusted 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.880 for inflation. They also have some that are like a 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.160 little more expensive, and then I think the most expensive one. 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.320 Dave helped us with this. He turned up when that 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.400 was like just over three hundred dollars. And they do 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.840 have some like collaborations with some higher end watch companies 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.480 that are more expensive than that. But if you just 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.760 get a Swatch Swatch, the most you're going to spend 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:53.120 is about three hundred bucks. So yeah, yeah, so you 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.840 me and I when we went on our honeymoon, we 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:57.720 were walking around the mall as you do on your 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:02.520 honeymoon in Juai, and we just popped in a Swatch 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.960 store and we got like his in her the I 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.560 guess the jellyfish like she got pink and I got 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:14.560 blue watches. Even that's the clear one, right yeah, even Yeah, 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.800 a watch having that level of sentimentality, I still can't 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:22.440 just wear. I just couldn't wear it. I can't have 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.440 something on my wrist right. But over the years we 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.680 still kind of collected some swatches here there, and now 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:33.520 our collection Chuck includes one of those giant Swatch wall 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.280 clocks in a region one of and it's one of 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:38.480 the coolest things we own. 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.200 Yeah. I had one of those, but it was a 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.920 knockoff of course it was a switch because you and 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.920 I very famously were not allowed basically any brand name, 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:51.840 right because we couldn't afford it. So I had I 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.720 had a knockoff whatever, like the Kmart version of that 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:56.720 was hanging hanging on my wall. 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:58.160 That's awesome. What did it look like? 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.840 It looked like a watch, you know, that's what yours 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.360 looks like, right, Like it's got the big band and everything, 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:05.960 and you just it's like hanging a big watch. 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.160 Yeah, it's ours. Is So they built like actual seven 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.960 foot tall with the band stretched out wall clocks called 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.679 the Maxi that were like giant versions of the actual 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.760 kinds of swatches you could buy on your wrist, right, 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:21.960 And the one we have is called I think the 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.599 White Memphis Style and it's from like nineteen eighty four, 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:28.840 I think something like that. And then we went and 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.200 got the actual watch to match. 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:33.039 Did you frame it next to it? 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.080 No, we just have it somewhere, so we pick it 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:37.680 up and look at it once in a while we're like, wow, 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.440 it really looks a lot like our wall clock. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:41.840 Well, I just got to say, I'm not going to 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:43.480 try and talk you in anything, but as someone who 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.119 also did not light something on the wrist. I really 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.720 have gotten used to it, and it's to the point 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:50.600 now where it feels a little weird when I don't 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.360 have it on. That was fast, Yeah, and it's it's 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.640 a good, you know, good looking watch. It's kind of 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.640 nice to be like an adult and have a an 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.279 actual watch and not an Apple watch or something. 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:08.360 Right. So, one other thing about swatches that drove me crazy. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.839 There's a distinct ticking sound that I couldn't not hear, 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:17.400 and I came to find that it was actually, I guess, 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:21.080 kind of a trait of swatches. I saw that from 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.960 researching this that swatches make a ticking sound and it's 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.440 because of the design, the very unique design they have, 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.600 which it will we'll get to that eventually, and when 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.160 we do, it's going to be eye popping. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.560 Do you just keep waiting for sixty minutes to come 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:35.960 on TV? 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.919 Yeah? I do, and then I just bury my head 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.640 under pillows till it's over all. Right. 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:43.640 Should we get into this thing, Yeah. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.320 Let's because what's interesting to me, Chuck, is that swatches 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.760 were born out of a mega crisis in Switzerland in 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:52.440 the beginning of the seventies. 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.720 Yes, absolutely, everyone, Well, maybe not everyone. If you've never 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.359 don't know anything about watches, you may not know that 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.600 Switzerland is renowned for their watches. If you've ever heard 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.200 the term runs like a Swiss watch, that's not because 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.000 they're kreddy and that they're they break down and that 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.400 they don't keep good time. It's because they have long 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.359 been a country that just has amazing craftsmanship with not 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.800 only you know, putting watches together, but manufacturing the tiny 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.599 little parts and everything. That's you know, if you've heard 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.880 of Rolex and Cardier and Omega, like all these really 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.040 nice watch brands, they're coming out of Switzerland and they 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:30.840 always have been. 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.280 Yeah, and one of the reasons why they're so ridiculously 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:38.680 high priced is that craftsmanship. Yeah, And that's just how 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:40.560 it was. Like, if you wanted a nice watch, you 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.880 bought a Swiss watch, and you paid through the nose 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:48.600 for it. And that's that was life until the Japanese 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:50.800 came along, Yes, and they said, we've got it. We 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.360 have an idea here. The Japanese are famous, chuck famous 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.280 for improving upon other people's inventions, just taking them and 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.479 making them just amazing. And this is a really good 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.840 example of that. Seiko introduced a watch called the Astron 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.840 on Christmas Day in nineteen sixty nine, and it completely 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.480 shook the watch world because the Astron was the world's 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.760 first courts watch and that that just changed the whole 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.160 the whole game, because you can make a court's watch 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:22.000 for very cheap and they keep much better time than 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:23.120 a traditional movement. 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.800 Yeah, I mean it's interesting. They're they're cheaper, they last longer. 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:33.880 I guess there isn't the you know, the the fame 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.480 that attaches itself to, you know, a Swiss watch that's 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.360 made from all tiny little parts. But you can't argue 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:46.360 with quartz as a as an improvement. I'm hesitant to 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.840 almost say it's like clearly better, because you know, a 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.520 great mechanical watch is still a wonder to behold and 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.640 keeps really good time. But courts came along and it 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.200 was very disruptive to the industry. We talked a little 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.360 bit about court What. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.520 Was that in it was semirismic clocks. 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.080 I felt even more recent than that, though, now, no, that. 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.080 Was pretty recently. It was only a few months ago, 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:10.720 was and that nuts? 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.520 Yeah, it seems like a few years and in the 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:19.120 best way possible, by the way. But quartz oscillates at 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.600 thirty two thousand, seven hundred and sixty eight times per second. 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.760 And when you have quartz as a part of your watch, 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.560 well not circuitry, but just as a part of it circuitry, 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.920 oh is it okay? Great? Then you can cut back 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.520 on a lot of those other little tiny parts and 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.800 you can make a thinner watch, like beyond the fact 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.440 that it just runs better and lasts longer. They can 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:44.640 be smaller and you don't have as many tiny little 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:46.360 parts that eventually could maybe break. 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.280 No, because in a traditional mechanical watch, when you wind it, 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.520 you're tensing. You're adding tension to a spring, and then 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.160 that spring slowly unwinds and it drives all these gears 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.000 and everything, and that's how it keeps track of the time. 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.200 And that's why if you look at a traditional mechanical watch, 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.880 the second hand that keeps track of the seconds goes 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.880 in a sweeping motion, an unbroken sweeping motion all around 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:12.560 the face. A courtz watch just ticks off one second 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.360 at a time. The second hand moves every second, and 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.760 the reason why is because that circuitry has counted thirty two, 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.840 seven hundred and sixty eight pulses and now it's time 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:25.480 to advance one second. So that's a huge difference. But yeah, 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.920 just the like you were saying, like, yes, courts is 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.719 obviously better, but in the way that like an advancement 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.040 tech in technology is better, that doesn't mean that the 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.679 craftsmanship that's competing with is any worse. And in some 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.120 ways it makes that craftsmanship, you know, that much more 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:44.320 desirable down the road. 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.640 Yeah, for sure. But these courtz watches came in from 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:51.360 Japan in the nineteen seventies after the debut in sixty 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.600 nine that you mentioned. Well, I guess that was Christmas 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:54.319 sixty nine, so. 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.000 The Summer of Love, the Christmas of Love. 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.319 Just a handful of days before the seventies, I think 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.920 right before Oh no, I guess that was seventies into 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.280 the eighties and Bookie. 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.880 Nights, Yeah that was that was like mid to late seventies. 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:11.319 Yeah. Well, but that famous New Year's Eve scene when 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.720 oh yeah that's his name. You know, man, what a 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:20.160 bum Yeah, that's a big bummer. Anyway, courts watches come along, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.680 they really disrupt the industry, and all of a sudden, 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.840 Switzerland found itself in a sort of a watch crisis. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:31.080 Before this broke out before courts came along, they controlled 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.800 fifty percent of the whole watch market in the world. 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.200 And then by nineteen seventy seven, a mere seven years 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.880 after the debut of these Japanese courts watches, Seiko became 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:47.840 the largest watchmaker by revenue in the world, and Switzerland 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:52.240 saw their industry fall off from believe between seventy seven 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.240 and eighty three, from forty three percent to less than 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.920 fifteen percent, which is like a real, real financial crisis. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.240 Yet it's you don't even have to know what a 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.800 number is to know that that's a massive financial crisis, right, Yeah, 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.000 And this is not just a couple of companies, This 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.280 is the entire Swiss watchmaking industry, which was a huge 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.360 part of the Swiss economy for centuries, right, So it 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.280 was a really it was a national crisis in Switzerland. 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.360 And so these companies that make up the Swiss Swiss 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:26.240 watch making industry were just dropping like flies. And it 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.640 came down to a couple like really major companies that 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:34.400 own brands like Omiga and Long Jeans and Tissou, like 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.640 just really high end Swiss watch brands. The two companies 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:45.560 were Alamine Switzirich Urin Industry Agre, my apologies to our 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.200 German listeners who we know were out there. And then 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:54.520 the other one is the Societa Swissport Industry or leger SA, 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.240 and I said that with a weird Spanish accent, but 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.600 that's in French. And these two companies were like mega 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:06.000 companies and they were like golias failing falling over. Essentially 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:07.760 they were in midfall. 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.840 Yeah, in mid free fall. And so what usually would 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.320 happen in a case like this with these big corporations 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.880 as you would take the assets that each company has, 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.800 like you know, these individual brands that they own, sell 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.920 them off, hopefully make some money doing that, and then 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.000 that's basically it. But a guy named Nicholas and this 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.199 is just I love this kind of story when someone 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.600 comes along and just says, no, we're not doing that. 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:38.560 And that was the case with Nicholas G. Hyak, who 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:40.880 if you ask people in Switzerland, in fact, there was 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.840 an actual survey like who were the best the best 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.559 with people of all time and they said Albert Einstein, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:53.640 Henri Dunant, who created the red Cross in the Geneva convention, 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.360 and then Nicholas Hyak, who put his foot down and 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.920 said no, we're not selling these things off. We're going 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.760 to merge together these two big companies and we're going 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.160 to start making courts watches. 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.840 Yeah. He was the head of a marketing consulting firm, 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.240 essentially business consulting firm, and they were like, just come 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:16.839 in and figure out the best way to sell these 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.000 companies off for parts to the highest bidder, and like 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.400 you said, he said, no, I've got a much better idea. 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:24.920 And it wasn't like they were just like, oh, okay, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.000 go do that. We don't care. We're eating metzger roach 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.680 tie over here, so who cares. They were very much 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.040 involved in this, and he had to convince the entire 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:38.320 Swiss watchmaking industry yeah, and all the Swiss banks that 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.200 were backing the industry and that would eventually back this merger, like, guys, 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.880 we need to merge these two companies, like Chuck will 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.360 eventually say on this podcast called Stuff you Should Know 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.480 years from now, and we need to make our we 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.959 need to like start making money handover fist really quick, 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.520 and we're not going to do that with these luxury brands. 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.640 We need to figure out how to make a very cheap, 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.200 very Swiss watch and get it to market asap. 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.240 Yeah, but that's the key there that you mentioned, Like 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.400 they weren't saying, hey, let's get parts from Japan and 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:14.600 just kind of build from there. They were like, we're 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.000 going to make these things in Switzerland. We're going to 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.360 put our Swiss you know, our country's name behind these 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.720 basically which had so much pride in their you know, 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.680 watch craftsmanship, and we're going to make them all here 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.600 and that's going to be the difference. And he did 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.040 not invent or design the Swatch. He came up with 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.880 this idea for this merger. There had been prototypes of 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:39.000 this Swatch a couple of years before, I think nineteen 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.680 eighty one, two full years before this merger. There was 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.440 one called the Popularis, which was a courts watch. It's, 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:48.960 you know, not my style is very of the time 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:51.800 in eighty one, but it's it was thin and kind 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:53.000 of groovy looking, don't you think? 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.040 Sure? Yeah, And that was it. 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.800 That was the first one, but it was not a Swatch. 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.480 When Hyatt took over in eighty three, he was like, 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:04.840 we got to make these low en watches, and we 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.200 got to start making them like stylish. We want someone 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.320 to be able to go out and buy a cheap watch, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.720 maybe who's never owned a watch before, because they were expensive. 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:19.440 M Luckily, he had some really good employees under his 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:24.360 well employee in these two merged companies. One of them 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.680 was a guy named Ernest tom Key. He's considered one 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.160 of the other fathers of Swatch. He had a couple 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.960 of designers, Jacques Muller and Elmar Mack working under him, 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.880 and between these three together you had some amazing designers 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.120 but also just really smart watch engineers. And tom Ky 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.960 in particular had been working for a good decade or 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.760 so trying to make the world's thinnest watch. Yeah, and 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.200 eventually he did. It was a watch called the Delirium. 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.240 It was less than two millimeters thick, that's five sixty 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.560 fourths of an inch thick, a watch with all of 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.680 the movie mints. And it wasn't a mechanical watch. It 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.320 was quartz, but it was still super duper thin even 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:07.640 for a quartz watch. And in fact, if you watch 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.800 Scarface Tony Montana's wearing one of these, it was just 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.240 a big, big deal. It was a very expensive watch 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.720 just because it was so thin, and also it was Swiss, 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:17.800 so if you put these guys who are really good 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.640 at designing and really good at engineering with fewer and 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:25.360 fewer parts in smaller and smaller spaces together, you've got 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.680 the basis for creating a brand new kind of watch 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.960 that Switzerland had never produced before, which is cheap, Swiss 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:35.400 and innovative and stylish. 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.680 Yeah, it's funny. It was very of the time, like thin, thin, 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:41.000 thin watches was a big thing back then. I kind 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.120 of even remember that. Yeah, I feel like and you know, 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:45.960 I've done a little bit of research since I've gotten 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.640 into watches a little bit, but it seems like seems 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.320 like chunky watches are kind of the thing now and 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:57.000 that very sort of thin even maybe rectangular bezel kind 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.800 of watch is and the bezel is just the you know, 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.280 the glass piece that sits over the top of everything 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:03.000 to protect it. 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:05.680 You have been doing your research, Well. 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:07.280 There's only a handful of watch parts and you got 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.680 to know what they are. Okay, but that doesn't seem 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.520 to be very in as in style anymore. But they 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.720 would get those parts down, you know, even for a 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.960 courtz watch. I think a typical courts watch had about 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:22.239 ninety one parts. They got that down all the way 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.880 to fifty one. They called it within the company Revolution 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.080 fifty one, and it was it was a big deal. 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.600 Like it was. I mean, they're still around and still 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.960 a huge company for all these reasons. 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:36.920 Yeah, And okay, so that's going on. You've got Tom 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.560 Key creating watches with fewer and fewer parts. At the 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:45.359 same time, Elmar Mack he had this dream to start 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:49.879 using plastic injection molding, yeah, to make watches. And rather 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.600 than get approval to buy a plastic injection molding machine, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:57.360 which was like half a million marks I think at 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.760 the time, he dis ordered it. And so luckily they 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.199 had this plastic injection molding machine and they used it 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.439 to create the first watches, and that helped them reduce 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.359 the number of movements even more because a lot of 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:16.399 the movement parts are what mount the actual moving parts 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.199 to the watch. And what they did was they built 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.080 in all of those parts that mount the movement to 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.400 the watch into the case itself, so it was all 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.439 one solid part and that even further dropped the number 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:34.160 of moving parts needed that much more in the original 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:35.320 swatches that came out. 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.320 Look at you, you said, case, what did that's a 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:39.800 watch part? 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.199 Oh? Thanks? I thought I'd been saying, like, Kasi this 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.760 whole time, You're finally You're like, you finally got it, Jos. 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.840 All right, shall we take a break. Yeah, all right, 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:51.520 let's take our first break here and we come back. 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:53.639 We'll talk a little bit more about the early days 0:18:53.640 --> 0:19:16.560 of this swatch. Okay, so we're back with Swatches. Switzerland 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:18.480 has this great idea, but they had a little bit 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.439 of a just sort of an early challenge on their hands. 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:23.240 You know. They found how to reduce the parts and 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:27.280 make everything cheaper, which was great, but they eventually looked 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:31.320 around their factory and said, here's the deal. We want 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.359 to make these all here, but everyone here makes a 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:38.639 ton of money. Like Switzerland just for regular old jobs 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:40.720 has the highest, you know, some of the highest wages 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.320 in the world, at least it has for a long time. 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:45.680 So you know, they could have outsourced. They could have 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.480 gotten some parts from different you know, countries in the 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:51.640 world and have them brought in and maybe just assembled 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.000 in Switzerland. But they held firm and they said, no, 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.080 we're not going to do it. We need to just 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:03.000 innovate and get manufacturing technologies that are so advanced that 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.080 we can get these things down to like, you know, 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.280 thirty to fifty bucks and they were able to do it. 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.919 Yeah, that's one of the reasons why Hayek or Hyak 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:15.800 is so revered. Not only did he challenge the watchmakers 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:20.439 in Switzerland to make a cheap Swiss Swiss watch, he 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.600 also was like, now you have to redesign how we 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.240 make watches from the ground up. And they were successful 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.600 and they ended up coming up with the Swatch. And 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:35.240 as much as that is a like the innovation to 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:40.000 the whole thing is impressive, the marketing piece to swatches was. 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:43.480 I mean it was just as just as much a 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.040 part of Swatch is this new way of making watches 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:50.240 because Hyak was he saw watches a little differently. He 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.000 was an outsider, and up to that point, if you 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:58.119 made watches, you considered watches jewelry, high end jewelry essentially. Yeah, 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.320 and he was like, no, this is you're overthinking watches, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:03.960 or at least you're overthinking this watch that we're making. 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.480 These are not jewelry. We're gonna make them fashion statements, 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:12.040 like fashion items. And just like say ties or shoes, 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:14.639 and you have more than one tie, and you have 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.480 more than one pair of shoes. We're gonna make it 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:19.880 so these people who are buying our watches want more 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.520 than one watch. It's gonna be amazing guys. 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:25.679 Yeah, and they went in. I mean it was a 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:29.800 huge risk, but you know, he painted a picture of like, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:35.199 imagine a world where teenagers want four and five of 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.720 these and all of a sudden they're you know, over 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.439 the course of a few years, they're investing you know, 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.359 two or three hundred dollars in their watch collection. And 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:46.480 that's a good start, and you know, it could be 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:48.679 a second watch for people. And that was in fact, 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.960 if you've always thought this watch was Swiss plus Watch, 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.080