Swatch turns 30

March sees the 30th anniversary of the Swiss watch makers Swatch who've been decorating our wrists for the last thirty years, so we look back on their effortlessly cool designs

By Adrian Collins

Cast your mind back to 1983 (if you can), when Michael Jackson's Thriller was top of the charts and Return of the Jedi was the biggest film on the planet, as well as in a galaxy far, far away. March of 1983 also saw the release of the first Swatch, so we decided to take a look back at their history of weird and wonderful designs.

Launching on the 1st of March 1983, Swatch produced a set of simple watches to combat the influx of cheap watches from Chinese manufacturers on to the market, and with a basic design available in a range of colours, it proved very popular.

Just one year after launch, they came up with a brilliant advertisement that got them into the Guinness Book of Records, placing a giant Swatch on the top of the Commerzbank headquarters in Frankfurt, which was 162 metres high and weighed 13 tonnes.

After a million sales in just a year, Swatch was firmly established as a leader and innovator in the field, which they continued to prove with their ground breaking designs.

We've come a long way from the days of just 12 colours, but Swatch remains as cool as ever, creating watches from the elegant to the eccentric.