In the mid 70s, the Swiss watch industry was in the midst of its worst ever crisis. Technologically speaking, the Japanese competition had been outclassed in 1979 with the launch of the 'Delirium', the world's thinnest wristwatch with a limited number of components. But the event that marked the upturn in the industry's fortunes was the founding of SMH, the Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries. Its answer to the crisis was Swatch, a slim plastic watch with only 51 components that combined top quality with a highly affordable price. It first went on sale in 1983. Now, nearly 200 million units later, it is the most successful wristwatch of all time and SMH, the parent company, is the largest and most dynamic watch company in the world.

For many years now, new developments have been taking their place alongside the standard Swatch watch in plastic - from the Swatch Chrono to the Irony (the Metal Swatch), from the light-powered Swatch Solar to the world's most melodious alarm clock, the Swatch MusiCall. From the Swatch Automatic to the world's first pager in a wristwatch, Swatch the Beep. Most recently Swatch has launched Access, a watch with a built-in access control function that can currently be used as a ski pass at most of the world's ski resorts.