Swatch

Swatches enjoyed their peak popularity in the mid-1990s, when a series of short-lived "Swatch Stores" were founded for the express purpose of selling Swatches. Though the Swatch Stores folded when the American economy experienced a downturn in the early 2000s, Swatches continue to be manufactured today.

Swatch has also invented the Internet time which is used as a global timesystem. Internet time was founded on the 23rd of October 1998. On that day, Biel Mean Time (BMT) was inaugurated in a ceremony marked by the presence of N.G. Hayek, President and CEO of the Swatch Group, and G.N. Hayek, President of Swatch Ltd. and Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of the MEDIA LAB at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was a remarkable day with some remarkable statements to match:

“Cyberspace has no seasons. The virtual world is absent of night and day. Internet Time is not driven by the sun’s position, it is driven by yours – your location in space and time.” “Internet Time is absolute time for everybody. Now is now and the same time for all people and places. Later is the same subsequent period for everybody. The numbers are the same for all.” “Internet Time is not geopolitical. It is global.” “The digital world will make our lifestyles more asynchronous. We won’t behave in such lockstep obedience with each other. Instead, prime time will become our time. People will wake up, sleep, work and play on far more heterogeneous schedules than we use today. What you do tomorrow may be most affected by somebody thousands of miles away.” “For many people, real time will be Internet Time.”

External links

http://www.swatch.com
http://www.swatch.com/internettime