When Swatch hit the massive three-O in March 2013, the fashion-watch phenomenon commandeered a complete ground of the Baselworld commerce truthful, filling it with each single one in all their 5,000-or-so watches. One thing large was going to occur, and it certain did: the Sistem51. A £100 watch, which grew to become the discuss of a city extra used to £10,000 value tags.
Like its legendary plastic forebear, Sistem51 sticks to (shock, shock) 51 components, however – amazingly – it’s now a purely mechanical watch, moderately than battery-powered quartz, with all of its cogs mounted on a single screw. Oh, and it’s made totally by robots in a manner like no different.
Some have been, and stay snobbish about its plastic micro-mechanics, however you possibly can’t assist however goggle on the achievement of making a self-winding motion with lower than half the standard components, packing 90 hours of energy reserve (the norm is round 40), plus claiming an accuracy of +/-7 seconds a day – virtually exact sufficient to earn ‘chronometer’ standing, of which Rolex, Omega and Breitling all boast.
Now obtainable in metal ‘Irony’ guise, for a dressier look, Sistem51 is the anti-fashion vogue watch: defiantly subtle, intentionally anarchic. It’s peerless, unprecedented, as future-forward as fashion-forward, but entrenched in Swiss custom.
How The Swatch Sistem51 Got here To Be
All of the bubblegum designs, artist collabs and down-with-the-kids advertising and marketing apart, individuals overlook how revolutionary the Swatch watch was. Removed from being simply one other stylish fad of the 80s, Swatch was conceived in response to a extreme (within the watch world, not less than) disaster: from the early ’70s onwards, handmade mechanical watches have been being threatened with obsolescence by low cost, mass-produced quartz watches pouring out of the Far East. Even James Bond had discarded his Rolex for a Seiko digital.
In stark distinction to the pouting, Swatch-toting teenie boppers on the quilt of Smash Hits, it took a brief, bearded, moderately plump engineering guide referred to as Nicolas G. Hayek to show the fortunes of Swiss watchmaking round. A employed gun, he masterminded the formation of the Swiss Company for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries, or ‘SMH’, by merging a consortium of mega-brands akin to Tissot, Omega and Longines collectively.
The bail-out banks referred to as upon Hayek, who invested 300 million Swiss francs of his personal money, then, as president, dragged SMH kicking and screaming into the trendy age with manufacturing traces, machination, and one daring, determined transfer: the Swatch watch.
An early Swatch advert from the ’80s
It was invented virtually by chance. An SMH engineer referred to as Elmar Mock had recklessly spent 500,000 francs on an injection moulding machine in the identical yr the agency had made 4,000 employees redundant. When his supervisor discovered, he had simply two hours to give you a proposal: an inexpensive quartz watch that used ultrasonic welding to construct the mechanism straight into the case. No screws, watertight, with simply 51 components, and little else to go mistaken.
Fortunately for Mock, SMH was already searching for an inexpensive new product, so – suitably chastened – he was given simply six months to convey his ‘Swatch’ to market.
Hayek pitched it completely to make the most of an age outlined by disposable revenue and elegance over content material. The typical Swatch proprietor used their assortment as an emotional assertion to go well with no matter their temper took them on a selected day. Now you might preserve your father’s Omega or mom’s Cartier safely locked away for particular events and, for on a regular basis use, simply throw in your ‘second watch’ (truly the origin of the title, not ‘Swiss watch’ as many assume).
A Swatch advert from 1984 with tennis legend Ivan Lendl
The Swatch watch’s wild success – together with all of its wacky spin-offs (keep in mind Pop Swatch?) – bolstered the restoration of all these venerable manufacturers up until the ’90s, when curiosity in conventional mechanics returned and the likes of Cindy Crawford began showing on Omega billboards. So essential was this placky 50-dollar airport present, that SMH was renamed ‘Swatch Group’ come 1998.
By 2006, the 333 millionth Swatch had been offered, and by 2013 a product was required to mark Swatch’s thirtieth with becoming finesse. And boy did we get one…
A Technical Masterpiece
You’ll be able to forgive Swatch’s new artistic director, Carlo Giordanetti for being considerably intimidated. Regardless of a historical past with the fashion-watch phenomenon stretching again so far as 1987 – bar a seven-year hiatus designing for Montblanc – the Italian was confronted with no imply job earlier than the ink on his contract had even dried: mark the 30-year anniversary with one thing spectacular.
“In a manner, I used to be intimidated, sure,” says a easy however honest Giordanetti, “in spite of everything, everybody has their very own thought about Swatch. The Sistem51 was a Coca-Cola bottle train – to alter issues, however not change a lot.”
Because it transpired, Sistem51 was arguably essentially the most thrilling launch of 2013’s Baselworld commerce truthful, regardless of a projected price ticket of simply CHF100–200. What that represents is just not solely the most cost effective automated mechanical Swiss watch in the marketplace, but additionally probably the most ingenious.
“The problem was to succeed in one thing just like Swatch with mechanics,” says Giordanetti, “however to get all the way down to that magic variety of 51 components? It appeared unimaginable. Particularly once we thought we had it – solely to seek out we have been nonetheless on 54! Oh my god…”
Fortunately for him and his workforce, this was Swatch: “It’s a incredible benefit; the engineers are all sensible sufficient to not current a prototype with 49 or 53. “They do issues,” he provides gnomically, “in their very own kitchen.”
Being laser-welded shut, even essentially the most skilled watchmaker must go at a Sistem51 hammer and tongs – successfully destroying it – as a way to work out how ETA’s engineers achieved that magic quantity. One thing commerce title EuropaStar did with grasp horloger Denis Asch as quickly because the watch hit Swiss shops in March 2014. The ensuing teardown report makes for an enchanting, if significantly nerdy learn.
General, what’s most spectacular is that the fundamental mechanical precept of a standard Swiss watch – a mainspring barrel, wound by a peripheral rotor, powering a geartrain at a charge ruled by an oscillating steadiness wheel and ticking lever escapement – has been totally preserved, in 51 components. Even the best mechanical actions normally quantity round 120.
The opposite two most spectacular options – to Denis Asch not less than – are that the escape lever is in plastic (“that is the actual prowess, as a result of that is what determines the speed!”) and that there are certainly no screws, simply metallic pins. All besides the one axial screw showcased by way of the clear caseback. And it’s this that impressed Giordanetti when it got here to naming his creation.
“What I liked most was the day we settled on the story of the ‘system’,” he recollects. “The central screw round which all the pieces orbited jogged my memory of Copernicus and his solar-system principle, putting the Solar on the heart of the identified universe, not Earth.”
What Makes The Sistem51 Nice
In design, the Sistem51 is a watchmaking revolution. However so too is the method behind it, being totally robotized.
To take action, Swatch’s motion maestroes ETA purpose-built an unlimited, bleeding-edge facility in Boncourt, at Switzerland’s north-west tip. Eventually depend (an exhaustive and unique on-the-ground report by know-how magazine, Wired), its 400 machines, unfold throughout 15,000 sq. metres work 24 hours a day, as much as six days per week, pumping out components made to minute tolerances, assembling Sistem51’s 5 modules, fixing them to the mainplate, then adorning in a spread of colours utilizing a digital printer.
Numbers are not often talked about in official communication (particularly on the subject of Swatch Group), however by Wired’s calculations, all of it amounted to not less than 4,000 watches per day. Since 2016, that authentic capability has theoretically doubled, with ETA constructing a carbon copy of the Boncourt facility actually over the street. All in all, a possible of two million watches per yr, taking Swatch increased than Rolex in Swiss mechanical manufacturing.
It’s the full lack of human involvement that beggers perception – particularly on the subject of the meeting course of. While you’re coping with such tiny, delicately poised mechanics, it’s virtually unimaginable to not depend on the dexterity of skilled fingers and thumbs. However certain sufficient, in Boncourt’s meeting room, row upon row of robotic arms whirl in good methodic live performance, like an orchestra of conductors, all gluing, pinning and soldering the watch collectively, simply as Elmar Mock pioneered again in 1983.
The Greatest Swatch Sistem51 Iterations
Carlo Giordanetti actually isn’t resting on his artists’ laurels. In actual fact, the Sistem51’s clear caseback and uncovered motion has impressed him to suppose in a different way about his personal mounted canvas. “As Mr Hayek at all times mentioned: ‘Don’t fall in love with your individual good concepts. Begin once more each time and wipe the slate.’” To whit, the Sistem51’s personal photo voltaic system now boasts an ever-expanding universe of planetary our bodies, of all totally different patterns, colors and kinds.
As at all times with Swatch, the watch itself is the assertion, so simply go together with it. Lime-green plastic can work with tailoring. However for a extra basic look, there’s now a metallic ‘Irony’ vary in metal – a correct grown-up Swiss mechanical for lower than £200.
Sistem51 Sistem Blue
The unique launch design, choosing out the place of the interior pins as a star chart – a intelligent nod to the solar-system idea. The translucent case reveals Swatch’s signature 4-claw lugs are current and proper, and the distinction stitching alongside the rubber strap actually is stitched thread.
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Sistem51 Irony Sistem By way of
No extra damaging tear downs are required to disclose the secrets and techniques of Sistem51’s mechanical effectivity – it’s all on show dial-side now, framed in stylish polished metal. And sure, that strap is actual leather-based. How do they do it for £154?
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Sistem51 Sistem Frog
The most recent addition to the Sistem51 household, and a reassuringly plastic-fantastic one, after 2018’s emphasis on metal Ironys. ‘Frog’: basic Swatch lolz there.
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Sistem51 Sistem Brushed
Stealth mode activated, treating the metal Irony to a super-slick PVD coating for a bang-on-trend gunmetal sheen. The usage of an all-metal case and bracelet actually ramps up the luxe-factor, making it seem like a watch that prices thrice as a lot.
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Sistem51 Sistem White
One other one of many 2014 launch designs, it was initially pigeonholed to ‘girl’. However we don’t know… with time (i.e. 4 years of more and more peacocky accessorisation) this feels extra asserted than ever.
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Sistem51 Sistem Soul
Appropriately named, here’s a dial straight from the sandy scribbles of Socrates himself, radiating calm with pensive cream tones and monochromatic minimalism. Aaaaand…. breathe. Purchase Now
Sistem51 1983 Swatch x Hackett
In the identical yr that Swatch was tearing up the Swiss rulebook, Jeremy Hackett’s up to date tackle British spivviness migrated from Portobello market stall to full-blown King’s Street bricks and mortar. The 2 manufacturers’ thirty fifth birthday is marked this yr with a bona fido (sorry) gentleman’s accent, starring Mr H’s beloved Sussex Spaniel, Muffin.
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