As we all know, there are a lot of incredible watches out there. Many of these incredible watches are available right on this website, but some of these watches went a step further. These three watches you will read about today went that step further by becoming watches that changed the world. These watches changed the way people viewed and used watches, revolutionising the watch industry forever.
Apple Watch
While reports vary as to how successful the Apple Watch has actually been, there’s no doubt that it is one of the watches that changed the world. The Apple Watch might not have been the first smartwatch but it was the first smart watch to be popular with mainstream customers. As with their smartphones, Apple’s cool factor which the likes of Sony, Huawei and Samsung don’t quite have really helped to capture the imagination of the public.
The Apple Watch is the kind of watch that people could only dream about 10 or 20 years ago. A watch which can surf the internet, receive emails and even be used to pay for your shopping is something many people never imagined that they would see. The Apple Watch 2 also moved towards the kind of fitness trackers that are becoming so popular today. The Apple Watch was the first smartwatch to really mix form and function, looking desirable in a way which other smartwatches failed to do.
Seiko Astron
The Seiko Astron didn’t quietly change the world, it boasted about doing so in its advertising materials. The reason the Seiko Astron is one of the watches that changed the world is the way it helped to perfect quartz watches. This watch was a big moment in Seiko’s history when they started the quartz revolution which shifted the balance of power in the watch industry from Switzerland to Japan. Seiko’s tagline for this watch was “Someday, all watches will be made this way” – and they weren’t wrong. While there are still many mechanical watches available for the traditionalists, quartz watches now take up a gigantic portion of the wristwatch market share.
The Seiko Astron shocked the world in the levels of accuracy in their new quartz watch. The watch was accurate to 0.2 seconds per day or 5 seconds per month, something which had never been seen with mechanical watches. Quartz watches could be easily mass produced and were even more accurate, causing people to flock to the new Japanese quartz watches which flooded the market. In less than a decade the quartz revolution had turned the watch industry, which had been built on mechanical watches, upside down.
The quartz revolution (or quartz crisis, if you’re Swiss) changed the watch industry forever. Despite this not being the first quartz watch, it was the one which revolutionised the industry. Many Swiss watch manufacturers went out of business and very few were unharmed by this revolution in the watchmaking industry. In the end, the Swiss watchmaking industry survived but it required them to embrace quartz and make massive changes to remain relevant. Seiko have now released a Seiko Astron GPS watch, which they hope will revolutionise the watch industry once again.
Swatch
We’ve seen the watch which almost destroyed the Swiss watchmaking industry, now lets look at the one which saved it! The Swatch watches that changed the world did so by embracing the new quartz technology and aiming their products at a very lucrative market. Prior to the release of Swatch watches, Swiss manufacturers focused almost entirely on traditional mechanical watches. This ended up being disastrous when Japanese manufacturers flooded the market with quartz watches which were much more accurate.
Swiss manufacturers seemed to be out of ideas until the Swatch popped up and did something very different. Swatch was developed by a merger between two of Switzerland’s leading watch groups under the name SMH. Rather than producing mechanical watches, Swatch decided to fully embrace the popular quartz technology to create a collection of affordable fashionable watches. Swatch aimed these new fashion watches at the younger market with exciting and colourful designs which were incredibly popular. These watches flew off the shelves and helped win back the majority of the industry dominance which had been lost to Japan in previous years. The brand even became so popular that by 1998 SMH renamed themselves the Swatch group!
The popularity of Swatch watches also helped the traditional Swiss mechanical watch manufacturers to reinvent themselves as luxury brands. Luxury Swiss mechanical timepieces now stand for tradition and great craftsmanship. If it was not for the release of the Swatch watch, this reinvention of the traditional Swiss watchmakers would not have happened. And, in fact, the Swatch Group still own one of those luxury brands, Omega, today.
Conclusion
The watch industry has had some incredible innovations over the years and amazing technological improvements. These three watches that changed the world brought us to the moment that we are at today. There are more amazing watches than ever available today with industry defining moments happening every single year. Nobody knows which watch will change the world next but we do know it will be a very exciting moment when it happens!
Images: William Hook, Museumsfoto, Luekk
