The Swatch Group (swatchgroup.com) with its headquarters in Biel, Switzerland, is a world-renowned manufacturer of watches and jewelry. The company was founded in 1983 by Lebanese-born Nicolas Hayek from the merging of Allgemeine Gesellschaft der Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie and Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère. Nicolas’s daughter, Nayla Hayek, has been chair of the board since her father’s death in 2010. She is also CEO of the luxury jeweler Harry Winston Inc., which was acquired by the Swatch Group in 2013. Georges Nicolas “Nick” Hayek Jr. has been the CEO and president of the Swatch Group since 2003. Overall, the Hayek family controls nearly 40 percent of the Swatch Group.

Swatch Group is a diversified multinational holding company active in the manufacturing and sale of finished watches, jewelry, watch movements, and watch components. It is the world’s largest watchmaking group. To stay true to its cultural ideals, the company supplies nearly all the components required for the watches sold by its eighteen individual brands. The Group’s production companies supply movements and watch components to third-party watchmakers in Switzerland and all around the world. This makes the Group a key player in the manufacturing of electronic systems used in watchmaking. It is also a leader in the field of sports event timing.
The company has been built into a large and complex organization in its roughly four decades in existence. Swatch and its 37 global subsidiaries employ about 37,000 people, and the company’s revenue is about $9 billion. The company’s headquarters in Biel sits on the language border between French- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland and is, by design, bilingual and culturally diverse. In fact, everything that Swatch engages in is based on diversity and culture. This cultural diversity is embedded in its overall brand and global strategizing. For example, many of the Swatch brands have become cultural icons among a strong core of customers. Some even talk about the “Swatch Revolution”
that began when Nicolas Hayek founded the company. It was the combination of legendary Swiss watch making and the unexpected appearance of an affordable plastic watch that turned the watch world upside down.
Suddenly, a watch was more than a way to measure time. It was a new individualized culture, a new language, and a way to speak from the heart without words. By definition, “swatch” means a sample of material or color, oftentimes referring to a small piece of fabric. It is remarkable how Swatch has been able to develop culturally unique watches while also building the fabric for a globally integrated world by its watch making. The Swatch Group’s brands go far beyond the iconic Swatch watches, though. They also include top global brands like Blancpain, Breguet, and Omega, along with unique and classic products such as Balmain, Calvin Klein watches and jewelry, Certina, Flik Flak, Glashütte, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Jaquet Droz, Léon Hatot, Longines, Mido, Original, Rado, Tissot, Tourbillon, and Union Glashütte. These brands form the “art” of Swatch—a focus that is almost always emphasized upfront in the company’s annual report and something the Swatch Group nurtures in various ways.

Questions
1. With the Hayek family controlling nearly 40 percent of The Swatch Group, how do you think the family’s influence impacts the corporate culture in the company? What about the company’s international culture being impacted by the Hayek family?
2. Many of the Swatch brands have become cultural icons among a strong core following of customers in the global marketplace. Some even talk about the “Swatch Revolution” that began when Nicolas Hayek founded the company. Why do you think Swatch has such a strong cultural following?
3. As mentioned, Swatch wants you to create your own unique way of accessorizing through its Swatch watch. Is a watch a way to show who a person is culturally? Does a watch get embedded into a person’s culture? Can a watch create a cultural image?