![]() The " swatch" brand of watch was launched in 1983, by the ETA SA CEO Ernst Thomke and his engineers. Taken private in 1985 by then-CEO Nicolas Hayek, with the understanding of the Swiss banks and the financial assistance of a group of Swiss private investors (in particular Stephan Schmidheiny and Esther Grether), it was renamed SMH (Société de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie) in 1986, and ultimately Swatch Group Ltd in 1998. ASUAG failed similarly in 1982.ĪSUAG/SSIH was formed in 1983 from the two financially troubled predecessor companies, ASUAG and SSIH. ASUAG had also integrated an array of watch brands in 1972 into a sub-holding company, General Watch Co. Its creditor banks assumed control in 1981.ĪSUAG ( Allgemeine Gesellschaft der Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie), formed in 1931, was the world's largest producer of watch movements and the parts thereof ( balance wheels, balance springs (spiral), assortments, watch stones ("rubis"). ![]() These difficulties occurred even though it had become Switzerland's largest, and the world's third largest, producer of watches. In the late 1970s, SSIH became insolvent due in part to a recession and in part to heavy competition from inexpensive Asian-made quartz crystal watches. Swiss watch quality was high, but new technology, such as the Hamilton Electric watch introduced in 1957 and the Bulova Accutron tuning fork watch in 1961, presaged increasing technological competition. SSIH ( Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère), originated in 1930 with the merger of the Omega and Tissot companies.
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