• #196: Swatch – Saving the Swiss Watch Makers

  • Mar 12 2025
  • Duración: 23 m
  • Podcast

#196: Swatch – Saving the Swiss Watch Makers

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  • Japan's digital watches massively disrupted the Swiss watch market. So, an entry level fashion watch is created to save the day. Swatch! Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [Waukee Feet Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Realtors podcast. Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple. And as usual, Stephen has whispered the topic into my ear as the five-second countdown commenced. So, I have three seconds to come up with my initial reaction to the brand is that we're going to discuss. And my recollection for this one is ... Let me tell you what it is first. It's Swatch. Remember the watches? And my recollection of it is they were just too damn cool for me. Stephen Semple: I mean, you're not a fashionista, Dave? Dave Young: I never have been. But here's the thing. I think by the time ... you'll have to fill in the dates here, but I think by the time I got out of college and was making my way in small market radio, the point of having fashionable timepieces on your wrist, which is ... was like, "That's just too cool for me. No." I recognize it as a cool idea that was going to make somebody a gazillion dollars. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: But it wasn't going to be my dollars that got it done. Stephen Semple: Well, you're somewhat accurate, and somewhat aren't because I believe that we are around the same age. I might be a tick older, but it was fall of 82 when Swatch was launched, but they became really big, late eighties, early nineties. Dave Young: So, yeah, I graduated college in 84, and so, yeah, by the late eighties ... and remember, I was in Western Nebraska. Stephen Semple: And there was no Amazon. Dave Young: Dude, Gone With the Wind has just now arrived at theaters in Western Nebraska. When you think about the good old days, they haven't even hit Western Nebraska yet. They're still waiting. So, go ahead. Stephen Semple: As I got looking at Swatch, here's the thing that's really remarkable about Swatch is how much they changed the watch industry. It is an idea that was remarkable because not only did it change the watch industry, it saved the Swiss watch industry. Dave Young: Oh, I believe it. Yeah. Stephen Semple: The change that came about was incredible. If we go back pre-Swatch, the idea of a watch is it was a single purchase item. Dave Young: There's a time ... yeah. Stephen Semple: People own one wristwatch. Dave Young: Yeah, and you decided, do you want a leather watch band or one of those metal expandy ones? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Which watch guy are you? Stephen Semple: Right. And Rolex, for example, was not even a high-end luxury product at that time. It was an expensive watch, but it was not a luxury watch. It was not an aspirational one. And it's really interesting. Even if you take a look at Rolex's advertisements from the seventies versus the ones 2000 and on, they're a very, very different feel. One was it's rugged, and you can use it, and they aligned with certain sports such as diving and things along that lines. You look at how it's positioned today, and it's a fashion statement. Dave Young: Yeah, I see that. Stephen Semple: It's very, very different. In 10 years following the launch of Swatch, they became the largest watch brand on the planet. Dave Young: Well, I'm sure we're going to hear about tons of imitators. And they hit right in that slice of time. There's a couple of decades,
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