Twice Again

The Swatch Twice Again.

People who write about watches tend to skew towards the new, the shiny, the haute.

A bit about me - back when the dinosaurs still roamed the land, I was 25, living in Japan, and just gotten together with the woman I would later marry. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and I strode into Robinson’s department store in Kasukabe (Saitama-ken) and bought the original version of this Swatch. If you knew me then, you would say that this was a bit out of character for me.

Before moving to Japan I had spent nearly a year and a half struggling to keep myself afloat. I was situationally homeless for a part of that time. When I got the job, I had to come up with about $3,500 (or so) to pay for my flight and have one month's worth of cash to live on until I would get my first pay check.

I sold everything I owned to get there…and that first year I was notoriously cheap. So believe it or not, the 6,000 Yen (less than $60 US at the time) I spent was a big deal. But something told me this was a big moment. Looking back 29 years later, I finally pulled the trigger on that Swatch's replacement, the Twice again.

Watch brands love to try and tug at our psyche, usually with over-priced, instantly forgettable wrist trinkets that will likely be worn for less than a year and discarded as the gift itself held little to no personal connection. With that said, it’s not lost on me that without any marketing efforts, a new $85 Swatch has landed such a visceral sucker punch on me some 29 years later.

Enjoy your watches!

Reconnecting

Sometimes, you need to take a moment and go back to that first kiss, the thing that got you started -

Courtesy of Swatch

I realize that it is inexpensive, quartz powered, and readily available. And truth be told, that to me is a big part of the appeal. A watch does not need to be expensive, highly complicated or extremely limited to be cool. I give you exhibit A, the Swatch TWICE AGAIN.  A wrist-full of cool for $80.

To quote that other great commentator on the watch business, Rakim (of Eric B. & Rakim):

"'Cause it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at."

Twice Again - Realistic Luxury

 

Courtesy of Swatch

I am, admittedly, a huge Swatch fan. And as much as I love the wild and whimsical, the one that really kicked it all off was actually pretty plain - black and white!  

I appreciate that if you are reading a watch blog, you are probably hoping for something a little more high brow, but in many ways, that original black and white Swatch was a powerful salvo in the way we looked at and thought about watches. Unless you were REALLY into watches, they were utilitarian, and not that interesting.  Hayek the Elder changed all of that with a relatively modest purchase price of $35 or so. And let's be honest, when compared with the MASSIVE price escalation of other watches out there, it is quite comforting to know that you can still lay hands to a Swatch for south of US $100.  

Now obviously Mr. Hayek is the one we all remember, but there were some other important players involved in the birth and growth of the Swatch, and if you want to go deeper, here is (my opinion as fact) great article -

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/581875/swatch-watch-history

In the case of the Twice again? You're looking at $80!